THE Treasury is proposing an online sales tax to assist high street shops and traders. A good strategy? On the face of it, yes!
However, many shops, traders and businesses are also online traders too. One can buy the same goods from a department store such as John Lewis online or in the shop, can collect or have them delivered. Same difference, so to speak!
Plant and seed companies and nurseries also rely on online sales and cannot have presence on the high street for practical and commercial reasons.
READ MORE: Scots retail was on the decline before pandemic, research shows
For many rural areas, online is the only way to obtain many goods. Services too are increasingly undertaken online or by telephone via call centres. How can one set up distinct criteria to differentiate? A real problem indeed!
It seems the post-Brexit problems are just about to get more intractable! The proposed solutions may only going more confusion! One aspect is certain, the Treasury and the extended "chumocracy" will gain from this!
John Edgar
Kilmaurs
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