The pubco said it would be reducing the price of food and drink across its estate by 7.5% on Thursday 12 September in a bid to demonstrate the advantages of a permanent VAT reduction for the sector and to mark Tax Equality Day.
A customer spending £10 on food and drinks at JDW would pay just £9.25 on the day. In Scotland prices will be reduced on food and non-alcoholic drinks only in line with Scottish licensing laws.
It comes as data from the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) earlier this week showed just under one in two operators broke even over the summer with a further quarter having made a loss, with high costs having hampered profitability.
Fantastic pressure
Wetherspoons, which operates more than 800 sites in the UK, founder and chairman Tim Martin described the “vast tax disparity” between the on and off trade as the “biggest threat to pubs”.
“Supermarkets pay zero VAT in respect of food sales, whereas pubs, bars and restaurants pay 20%.
“This tax benefit allows supermarkets to subsidise the selling price of beer. Pubs have been under fantastic pressure for decades, because of the tax disadvantages which they have with supermarkets.
“It doesn’t make sense for pubs and the hospitality industry to subsidise supermarkets.
Tax equality
“A VAT cut to 12.5% is needed to ensure pubs, bars and restaurants do not continue to close, but instead thrive, invest and create new jobs. We call on the chancellor to create tax equality,” Martin continued.
The pub behemoth has repeatedly implored the Government to cut VAT for the sector for some years, having slashed prices in a similar way on Tax Equality Day for several years in a row.
In addition, the JDW boss has been vocal in his criticisms when it comes to VAT disparities between pubs and supermarkets for some time.
Speaking to The Morning Advertiser (MA) earlier this year as part of the Big Interview series, Martin said: “When you’ve got very, very powerful supermarkets being taxed less than weaker hospitality businesses, then that isn’t a sustainable situation.”
