Consultation outcome

Online Sales Tax: Policy Consultation

• From: HM Treasury
• Published: 25 February 2022
• Last updated: 9 February 2023 — See all updates

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Online Sales Tax - Response to the consultation

PDF, 168 KB, 29 pages

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Online Sales Tax - Response to the consultation

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Detail of outcome

As an outcome of the Business Rates Review, on 25 February 2022 the government launched a consultation considering the case for an Online Sales Tax. The government reviewed the feedback it received from stakeholders over the consultation period and announced at the Autumn Statement 2022 its decision not to proceed with such a tax. This document summarises the views shared during the consultation process that informed the government’s conclusion that that an OST would be complex to design and risked creating unintended distortion or unfair outcomes between different business models.

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Original consultation

Summary

Consultation on an online sales tax to gather evidence and inform government policy on the proposal.

This consultation ran from
10am on 25 February 2022 to 10am on 20 May 2022

Consultation description

This is an open consultation, exploring the proposal for an online sales tax (OST) as a means to rebalance the taxation of the retail sector between online and in-store retail. Questions exist over many areas of any potential OST. These include the different forms an OST could take and how to define an online sale reflecting the range of transaction, delivery, and collection options.

This consultation explores these issues and the potential impacts of an OST to help the government assess the case for and against implementing such a tax.

Stakeholders can submit views by email to: OSTconsultation@hmtreasury.gov.uk or by post to: Corporate Tax Team, 1 Yellow, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.  Otherwise, stakeholders can download and use the response form available below to submit views.

Documents

Online sales tax: Assessing an option to help rebalance taxation of the retail sector

PDF, 489 KB, 49 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email digital.communications@hmtreasury.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Consultation Response Form

MS Word Document, 316 KB

Published 25 February 2022
Last updated 9 February 2023 + show all updates

1. 9 February 2023

   Final Outcome Published

2. 25 February 2022

   First published.