Bira’s cookshop and housewares members were among those surveyed for their views on the introduction of an Online Sales Tax (OST) as part of a poll by The Independent Retailers Confederation (IRC) – a body of 19 trade associations.
IRC submitted some key conclusions to the government’s consultation, which closed last week (May 20) after a 12-week period. While there is no consensus, the majority of bricks and mortar retailers welcome the idea of OST offsetting business rates costs, which significantly impact their physical premises, but not at the cost of stifling their future online sales.
If an online sales tax is introduced, a sufficiently high qualifying threshold needs to be applied, starting at £2million of online sales, says the IRC. The trade body also concludes that Click and Collect must be exempt from OST because of its role in driving footfall to shops and town centres.
* To read more details of the IRC’s summary of independents’ view on OST, go to the IRC’s website
Top: Online sales are becoming increasingly significant for many independent cookshops and housewares retailers.
