22/01/2019
The Revenue Commissioners have announced 23% VAT on all food supplements (this includes vitamins, minerals, fish oils, probiotics etc) from the 1st of March 2019.
Revenue Commissioners proposed to the Minister of Finance, Paschal Donohoe, that VAT be introduced for food supplements in the 2019 Budget and they had deferred to the Minister for his opinion as to what that rate should be.
Minister Donohoe chose not to engage with Revenue and did not provide guidance thereby paving the way for the introduction of 23% VAT early 2019.
Minister Donohoe has the power to issue a 0% VAT ruling if he wishes to or is made to do so by public opinion. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan reversed the 23% VAT ruling on herbal teas in 2014 - so the minister has this power if he wishes to do so.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar T.D. launched the Government's Healthy Ireland 2018 plan last year, and now anyone who is proactively looking after their health will have to pay 23% more for their food supplements. This is going to affect over 80% of the population in Ireland.
The HSE Ireland urges all women who could become pregnant to take Folic Acid, whether or not they intend to become pregnant. They also recommend Vitamin D for everyone from babies to the elderly. There are over 915,000 people in Ireland living with Arthritis and many of these people would use food supplements to help ease their symptoms.
The sugar tax was introduced last year and this only applies to fizzy drinks. The bag of sugar in the supermarket will still have a zero VAT rate. So, the sugar you buy in the supermarket will have no VAT, but the food supplement you buy to look after your health will have 23% VAT.
Please make contact with your local TD and let them know how you feel about this and we can try and get this tax on health reversed, you can also email Minister Donohoe at paschal.donohoe@oireachtas.ie.
If you are wondering who your local TD's are, you can click the link down below and this will give you the names and email addresses to make contact with them.
https://www.whoismytd.com/
Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/do-not-tax-health-food-supplements
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