Re your report (Retailers urge ministers to step in as high street store closures soar, 11 September), a scheme to address the unfair competition from online retailers, the dead weight of fixed business rates, which bear no relationship to the business’s ability to pay, and the salting away of profits in Luxembourg by multinationals is destination taxation applied to all suppliers to the UK retail market, as a combined corporation tax and business rate and presented as a “sales tax”.
Each month the retailer (on or offline) sends, say, 25% of their sales to HMRC and, in turn, deducts 25% from payments of all kinds to their suppliers and issues them with a tax receipt. The retailer’s net payments are thus proportional to their ability to pay (profits). Tax is deducted from suppliers, lenders and licensors, even if they are offshore.
Peter Redman
Dorchester, Dorset
• The disastrous steady decline in our high streets demands radical and immediate action. Cash-strapped councils need business rates, but competition from online shopping means rates and rents are increasingly unaffordable for retailers. Meanwhile, the online warehouses out of town avoid equivalent charges. To even up the playing field, I suggest that every online purchase includes a very small surcharge. This revenue could be collected by a government body and redistributed to councils, who could then lower business rates to encourage retailers.
Victoria Dorman
Mayfield, East Sussex
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