Commenting on today’s Tax Equality Day, which highlights the unfairness of Britain’s VAT system on pubs, BBPA Chief Executive Brigid Simmonds said:
“Today the pub industry is shining a light on just how unfair VAT is, for both pubs and the wider hospitality sector.
“If you buy a meal in a supermarket there is no VAT, but in the pub, you pay 20 per cent.
“Even a small drop in the VAT rate for eating out, to 15 per cent, would create 78,000 jobs, and would be a big boost for the economy.
“Lots of our competitor countries have taken action on VAT in the hospitality sector, and Britain should, too. When you add in business rates, and the huge rises we have seen in beer duty in the past decade, it all makes for an unsustainable tax burden on our pubs.”