Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Friday 20th November 2020

The Government has announced a significant support package to help businesses affected by Covid-19. While there are no plans to extend the scope of the reduced rate, we keep all taxes under review.

To support the cash flow of over 150,000 businesses and to protect 2.4 million jobs, the Government has applied a temporary reduced rate of VAT (5 per cent) to goods and services supplied by the tourism and hospitality sectors. Hospitality includes the supply of food and non-alcoholic beverages from restaurants, cafes and pubs. It also includes the supply of hot food and non-alcoholic hot beverages to take away. This relief came into effect on 15 July 2020 and will end on 31 March 2021, and applies across the UK. This relief comes at a significant cost to the Exchequer, and there are currently no plans to extend the scope to include other sectors.

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chancellor has announced a range of measures to help individuals and businesses through the crisis, including grants, loans and relief from business rates. The Government deferred VAT payments, so UK VAT-registered businesses did not need to pay any VAT due with VAT returns from 20 March through to the end of June 2020, before the end of March 2021. In September 2020, the Government announced the VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme to give businesses who want it, extra time to pay VAT they deferred.

The Government has also announced a targeted package of measures, which includes an extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, an extension of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant, and an extension of the application window for the government-backed loan schemes. These apply to any business in any part of the UK.

HM Treasury