Since January 1st, the VAT on bread, bread flour, milk, cheese, eggs, fruit, vegetables, pulses and tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots…) went from from 4% to 0% while the VAT on oils and pasta dropped from 10% to 5%.
It is a measure published on December 28th last year in the BOE through the royal decree-law of measures to alleviate the effects of the war in Ukraine. The reduction will last until June 30th or until May 1st if inflation in March is lower than 5.5% (the figure released by the INE for the month of December was 5.8%)
Percentages, products and dates that yesterday were a complete mystery to many customers of the Mercat Nou and a complication for many small businesses that had to apply the measure with a calculator in hand. And some workers could not even apply it because the company had not informed them about it.
VAT rebate: Pulling out calculator
“Here we work manually, I am using a calculator today, but in general the customers will notice it from tomorrow [today] in many places,” explained José Juan, from the vegetable and grocery stand L’ou.
The prices in the stalls were still the same as last Saturday because the new categorization will begin as of this Tuesday. “Of course, the complicated issue for us in the initial days is the fact of having paid a VAT and not having to collect it“, noted this merchant.
Apart from these inconveniences of the first days, José Juan considers that the measure is positive at a time when prices have risen and wages remain the same, but he does not believe that it is particularly noticeable in the pocket of individual customers. “In the end they are drops of 5 or 6 cents a kilo that in the purchases that people make of about 10 euros, do not mean much, although everything adds up,” he said.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.