“Stop tax on local firms selling online”

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Jersey companies selling online should be exempted from GST to drop their prices by 5% and make them competitive against tax-free imports from outside the Island, says a business lobby group.

Chamber of Commerce President Kristina Le Feuvre has called on the Treasury department to exempt local firms selling online from the sales tax to “level the playing field”.

Her comments come just after Treasury Minister Alan Maclean said that there was a move within the EU to charge sales tax on all online shopping, which would mean prices going up for Islanders who buy online from companies such as Amazon.

He said that there was no clear timeline for the change, and no clear plan on how it would work.

Currently, you can order anything worth less than £240 without paying sales tax under a system called “de minimis limits”, which is a way of getting around the administration and paperwork for paying tax on small items.

Mrs Le Feuvre said that it was time to use the tax system to support local companies.

She said: “The EU have decided that, eventually, the Low Value Consignment Relief will be removed.

“This has been overshadowed by the migrant crisis so it’s not going to happen now, but it will happen eventually.

“What we’re saying is ‘let’s look at a halfway house’.

“We’re asking the Treasury Minister to remove GST from local sales made online, which at least supports the Digital Jersey initiative.

“Here’s a way of making a start to level the playing field. If we feel that we have to follow the EU example, or wait until they have done something, then how about doing this in the interim?”