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Attempts will be made to investigate a new property tax, wrestle away Policy & Resources’ control of capital expenditure, and to exempt GST on food sales and charity shops selling books and clothes in next week’s tax debate.
Deputies Aidan Matthews and John Gollop want all food sales in restaurants, farms, stalls, supermarkets, and other providers zero-rated if a goods and services tax is introduced, as well as locally registered charity shops serving food and selling clothing and literature.
Those two deputies have also launched an attempt to raise the income tax personal allowance from £13,025 to £18,550 – the same as Jersey which collects GST at 5%. They say this is more generous and would bring Guernsey in line with its neighbour.
Deputies Yvonne Burford and Lyndon Trott have suggested rescinding the authority given to Policy & Resources in 2021 to set budgets on one-off capital projects so long as the total spend did not exceed £568m.
Instead, they want the States Assembly to resume the power to set those budgets for any upcoming project that would cost over £5m, with P&R retaining delegated authority for any scheme under that amount.
Pictured: Policy & Resources are likely to oppose most of the amendments laid against its policy letter.
Deputies Matthews and Gollop also want the States to increase residential property taxes to generate additional revenue and agree to investigate a new form of domestic property tax - a value based Proportional Property Tax.
They want P&R to return no later than June 2024 with details of how it should be calculated, who to exempt, if any, whether it should replace TRP or operate in tandem with it, and other considerations which can be read in full HERE.
An amendment from Deputies Rob Prow and Andrea Dudley-Owen seeks States Assembly approval from any potential increases to the rate of GST should the headline package be adopted. Policy & Resources’ members have said they will support this.
Express has written extended articles on the other, more substantive amendments pitched as an alternative to P&R’s tax and social security package to raise additional revenue.
You can read the full list of amendments and policy letter HERE.
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