Burnham to remove VAT from household electricity bills that seems great!

[ericmark]

I note VAT £1.88 VAT on a -£24.76 bill. Because VAT is on import not the total import and export.

I like I am sure many others, look at the off-peak of 8.625p/kWh and export of 12p/kWh, and it is both easier and cheaper to fully charge my battery rather than work out how much I will need.

Where the tariffs are closer off-peak to export, it is not so cut and dried, and it helps the grid to have solar panel and battery customers to charge the battery high enough, so there is no draw from the grid at the critical time 4 pm to 7 pm.

If I look at solar yesterday.
The solar dropped at 4:30 pm, but the state of charge faint purple line above it, shows the battery lasted out, which asks of why is the government not encouraging the use of battery storage more?

It seems nearly all grants are for panels only, no battery. I would say the battery saves us more per cost to install to the solar, but they do work together, and VAT on import only has been resulting in paying the government to store power for them.

But what well the government tax instead? We have seen some daft taxes through history, the window tax, and as people bricked up the windows a brick tax, which is why bricks became larger. Which in turn is why It's so hard to match brick sizes even today.

I look at this thread and wonder how such small solar panels help, I hope he gives us some info on how they work out?

 

[Murdochcat]

Seem a very sensible thing to do and will save us about £75 per year

More a headline attention grabber than a real policy - BUT very cheap to implement and easy to understand

Whether the population at large can work out their own savings is another question

But does the cut apply to businesses?

 

[Koolpc]

I worked it out and I will save 32p on my kennel's electric bill...per year.

 

[ericmark]

The headlines are to help the poor, but people with battery storage are unlikely to be poor.

But this will also impact on EV charging, so high electric users will get more benefit. Those who can afford, heat pumps, EVs and batteries.

But it means also a slap in the face for those providing EV charging, with even a bigger difference to charging at home to charging away for home.

 

[yorksbuilder]

Its a headline grabbing gimmick, and a small measure to absorb elsewhere. Wait for the Autumn budget where we will get shafted

 

[JohnW2]

Wait for the Autumn budget where we will get shafted

If at least some people are not 'shafted' pretty soon, we will probably be at risk of becoming a "Third World Country"

Yes, the long-term solution, if achievable, is substantial 'growth', but that will take very many years, and, in the meantime, most people seem to want 'something to be done'!

 

[Mottie]

Its a headline grabbing gimmick, and a small measure to absorb elsewhere. Wait for the Autumn budget where we will get shafted

I saw some minister or other being questioned on BBC news this morning.
"So this move will save the average bill payer £45 a year"?
"Yes, that’s correct".
"But you are only running the scheme for 6 months".
"Yes but no but yes but no………."

 

[aveatry]

Seems like a brexit bonus to me

 

[Koolpc]

If at least some people are not 'shafted' pretty soon, we will probably be at risk of becoming a "Third World Country"

With the amount of illegal immigrants coming here that won't be too far away!!!

 

[ericmark]

"So this move will save the average bill payer £45 a year"?

So the average bill payer spends £900 a year on electric. And it will save around 12p a day.

I spend around £200 a year on electric of which around £35 is VAT. So in real terms 16.5% VAT, this is because I store off-peak and then as a result export more during the day, but I pay VAT on what I import but don't get refunded VAT for export.

My battery is small 6.4 kWh, but people with larger batteries can be transferring much more energy from off-peak to peak times, so they are being charged VAT for helping the grid out by transferring energy.

This is clearly wrong. But you don't need to sell to same company as you buy electric from, this is why we have two MPAN numbers. So although in my case it would have been possible to charge VAT on the net use, not everyone could be charged in that way, so easy method is stop charging VAT.

But as to helping the poor, if one can buy a large battery, one is not really poor.

 

[JohnW2]

So the average bill payer spends £900 a year on electric. And it will save around 12p a day.

Yep, whether you call it £45 per year, 5%of £900 per year or £12 per day, those are the figures.

Would you prefer then to not remove the VAT?

 

[ericmark]

Would you prefer then to not remove the VAT?

Oh no, VAT needs removing to encourage people to use their batteries to move power from night to day. But to claim being done to help the poor, is not right.