Join our campaign against VAT on self storage!

The government has announced its intention to make self storage subject to VAT and has opened a consultation procedure which runs until May 4 2012.

Charging VAT on self storage would be unfair on both customers and providers.

If the government goes ahead, this proposal will result in fewer people being able to use self storage, smaller revenues for the industry and job losses.

Storage.co.uk thinks it's unfair to impose VAT on self-storage because:

  • Many customers will stop using storage space if the price is increased by 20%.
  • Self storage is essentially about letting out individual units of space which are clearly separated, and therefore should be exempt from VAT in the same way as other rental property.
  • It discriminates unfairly between different-sized properties – smaller garage landlords will not have to charge VAT as they will be below the VAT threshold.
  • It will punish the success of self storage companies whose annual turnover expands beyond the VAT threshold of £77,000.
  • The new rules are being imposed at short notice (they would come into effect during October 2012), and without a transition period.
  • The industry already collects large amounts of VAT for the government on sales of items such as packaging materials and padlocks.
  • The self storage industry already pays large amounts to the government through business rates and corporation tax.
  • It will hit small business customers particularly hard – larger businesses will be able to reclaim VAT, but not smaller start-ups which aren’t VAT-registered.

What can you do?

1.  Storage.co.uk has designed a badge to accompany our campaign against imposing VAT on self storage. We encourage you to display this on your website by following this link.

2.  Make a response to the government’s public consultation. Interested parties are allowed to request a meeting with the consultation team. Their contact details are below:

By email:

mailto:david.roberts4@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

By post:

David Roberts, HMRC, VAT Projects Team, 3C/10, 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ

3. Ask your staff and customers to send emails to the consultation explaining why they don't think VAT should be imposed on the self storage industry.

Act now – by working together we can challenge this!

The Self Storage Blog