The Treasury has written to online retailers ruling out proposals by supermarkets for an online tax.
Exchequer secretary to the treasury David Gauke said in the letter he wanted to apply 'common principles' to the way businesses are taxes, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The letter, sent to six online retail chief executives last week, said that the Government does 'not favour a specific tax targeted at the online business sector'.
'The Government recognises that online businesses contribute to growth in the UK and supports continuing success in the sector. Many online business operate across international borders and it is therefore important to have international agreement on the principle of how multinational business, including online, are taxed,' it said.
The idea of a specific tax on online sales has been pushed by retailers in recent months including Sainsbury's, Morrisons and former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy.
However, the notion of such a tax was slammed by Next chief executive Lord Wolfson, a former adviser to the Treasury, as anti-competitive. The group of six online retailers, including Ocado and N Brown, wrote to the Government warning against an online sales tax arguing it would hamper growth in the sector.
The letter said: 'We favour an approach which aims to ensure common principle apply to all businesses whether operating online, from physical premises or with a combination. For this reason we do not favour a specific tax targeted at the online business sector although we aim to ensure that tax principles are developed which can be applied consistently across the economy.'
'This area is extremely complex; with large parts of the economy moving towards having some form of digital presence it is important to ensure fair competition between digital and non-digital businesses,' it said.
No comments:
Post a Comment