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Pre-election VAT slip-up for Labour?

What is it about political parties and their tax campaign posters, and why do they keep on getting it so spectacularly wrong?

Earlier this year, the Chancellor’s Budget speech was largely overshadowed by the furore provoked by a campaign on the reduction in the bingo tax which, the Conservative Party poster told us, was designed ‘to help hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy’.

The ad was quite rightly lampooned for its patronising tone and a number of spoofs began doing the rounds on social media. But while the wags on Twitter had a field day, the campaign did inflict some real political damage, diverting attention away from some of the Budget’s more significant measures, and helping to reinforce an image of the Tory Party which many would like to shake off.

Last week, the Labour Party scored a spectacular own goal of its own, with a poster denouncing the Coalition’s VAT policies and the negative effect these were having on household budgets.

This would have been fine in and of itself, but to illustrate the point, the message was accompanied by a picture of 25 everyday household products. Unfortunately, no fewer than 17 of these items were in fact zero-rated, leaving Party communications chiefs with a large amount of (VAT-free) egg on face.

Now VAT isn’t always straightforward. For some foodstuffs, HMRC officials even have to carry out taste tests to determine the nature and purpose of foods and whether a VAT relief should apply.

But even here the Labour Party got it wrong, choosing to include chocolate-chip biscuits (which are zero-rated) as opposed to chocolate-coated biscuits (which are standard-rated).

Now if the political parties who effectively create our arcane taxation system don’t understand it, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Those in politics should learn that it’s never too late to shelve a bad policy (HMRC access to people’s accounts perhaps?) and it should never be too late to pull a bad campaign.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by George Bull .