From the BBC:
David Blunkett has thrown his weight behind a campaign to exempt guide dog food from VAT saying the issue is "far more serious than hot pasties". Special high protein food eaten by racing greyhounds and other "working dogs" is VAT exempt. But the tax break does not extend to guide dogs - costing the Guide Dogs charity an estimated £300,000 a year.
The former home secretary has called on the Treasury to reclassify guide dogs as "working dogs" for tax purposes. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association - to give Guide Dogs its full title - is angry that the Treasury appears to consider guide dogs to be in the same category as "pets".
Labour MP Mr Blunkett, who is accompanied everywhere by guide dog Cosby, a black curly coat retriever, says it is a greater injustice than the "pasty tax" - the levy on hot food that landed Chancellor George Osborne in trouble in his March Budget.
Mr Blunkett has also called for a higher tax-free personal allowance and an increase in the Disability Living Allowance for the registered blind, an enhanced re-settlement allowance for former Cabinet ministers, more regional funding for his former constituency in Sheffield and a capital gains tax exemption for everybody whose surnames start with the letter "B".
Friday 18 May 2012
Special Pleading Of The Week
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6 comments:
If such a measure came in, you would suddenly find guide dogs developing utterly ravenous appetites...
They have no idea, have they? How the f*ck do they think this could be policed?
"Head of campaigns David Cowdrey said: "For guide dogs to be charged VAT on their food is unfair when gundogs and racing greyhounds get a tax break."
When did you last see a dog buying food? FFS, the Treasury has even pointed out that it's the food that's exempt and not the dogs, so the owners of gundogs and racing greyhounds pay VAT on their dogs' food if they feed them ordinary dog food, but it the Davids appear to be blind to such logic.
Mind you, I wonder who the powerful lobby group is who got that little VAT exemption unscathed throught the last budget.
How much does the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association get in Gift Aid? I suspect more than £300k. Call it evens.
It's very common is special pleading...
Matthew 7.5
Ha! So Winalot would just label their produce "Guide Dog Food" instead of "Dog Food" and off we go. Good grief.
C, B, yup.
M, I've checked their accounts - they seem to receive very little indeed from the government, just a smidge for actual real life guide dog training from local councils.
DP, excellent point. I hadn't bothered to think that far ahead.
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