{"id":8470,"date":"2019-05-17T09:37:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T08:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8470"},"modified":"2019-05-17T09:37:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T08:37:00","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-vat-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8470","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week – VAT on solar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"solar<\/a>I’m extremely pro Europe and want to remain but I would be the first to concede the EU does not get everything right.\u00a0 One thing its got very very wrong is VAT on solar and other energy saving materials.\u00a0 This saga goes all the way back to when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister.\u00a0 He wanted to cut VAT on solar and other things like insulation.\u00a0 There was a value added tax (VAT) of 17.5%.\u00a0 (In those days as now there were three rates, 0% on items like children’s clothes, 5% and 17.5%.)\u00a0 When I installed my first PV system I managed to get the rate down with an HRMC ruling to 5% since I imported the modules myself. \u00a0 Brown as I remember it wanted the rate cut to either zero or 5%.\u00a0 This is illegal under the EU single market rules without the EU commission agreeing.\u00a0 This they would not do.\u00a0 Brown argued for a zero rate throughout the EU.\u00a0 This they would also not do.\u00a0 At some point the UK government cut VAT to 5%.\u00a0 The EU commission took the UK government to the European Court of Justice, where we lost.\u00a0 The government ignored the ruling.\u00a0 Then came the EU referendum.\u00a0 Astoundingly despite the fact we are supposedly leaving the UK government has given up and is raising the rate.\u00a0 There will be some exemptions as there are now.\u00a0 At the moment the 5% rate only applies to the residential market and you had to use an installer.\u00a0 Under the proposed changes there will be some exemptions for those over 60 and people living in sheltered housing.\u00a0 Here’s what I found online (Crowe.com) “If the customer or building does not qualify under the above heading, the goods and services can still be subject to 5% VAT provided that the goods make up no more than 60% of the total charge. If they do, then 5% VAT can only apply to the services element.”<\/p>\n

I don’t know how achievable the 60% figure is.\u00a0 This is all just wrong.\u00a0 The EU should be making all renewable and energy saving equipment zero rated.\u00a0 After all we are facing a climate emergency.\u00a0 Its also very annoying since oil and gas are charged 5% VAT.\u00a0 If we do ever leave the EU it will be interesting to see what happens…<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m extremely pro Europe and want to remain but I would be the first to concede the EU does not get everything right.\u00a0 One thing its got very very wrong is VAT on solar and other energy saving materials.\u00a0 This … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17,15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week","category-practical-low-carbon-living","category-renewables"],"yoast_head":"\nOne thing we have learnt this week - VAT on solar - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8470\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8470\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=8470\",\"name\":\"One thing we have learnt this week - 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