The Following businesses are complying with the new VAT rate and passing the savings onto the customers...

LETTERKENNY

The Yellow Pepper say they have had the price change since June when they updated the menus

The Lemon Tree has the reduction mentioned on the menus

Dunnes Stores Cafe has the reduction on their food

The Quiet Moment has a sign on the window saying they have the discount

The Center Court Hotel (Dillons) have the reduction

Gallaghers Hotel have the reduction

arena 7 say that the set price menu has changed to reflect the changes.

the dry arch petrol station is currently repricing all magazines to show the VAT change too

Peter Mark have the reduction for hairdressing

McDonalds passing on the saving too

The Eatery in An Grianan theatre has reduced them too

The Radisson Blu have changed their room and restaurant rates and will refund the differnce to anyone that booked before July 1st.

Easons reduced magazines and newspapers by 9%

Patrick Gildea's hairdressing all reduced by 9% (includes his other hair places)

Streets Ahead have it too

O'Heirs Bakery have 10% off all tea and coffee with everything else following

Century Cinemas (looks like they have gone back on their NEVER changing stance! Go People Power!)

Trax Cafe in the shopping centre have reduced prices

Proctors Newsagents have all the magazines and newspapers reduced

Tesco have reduced all magazines and newspapers too

Tin Tai Chinese have a sign in the window

Pats Pizza and Pats Too have had their prices down since January's redesign*

The Brewery say they have dropped prices by 20% in the last few months*

Mr Chippie still are doing their own reductions*

Harris Stop and Shop (no link) have reductions on Papers only, not magazines

I am only linking to places that do have the reduction btw. The others don't deserve the click

*these places have had major reductions over the last few months that aren't specifically related to the VAT rate but are trying their best (pats as an example are back to prices in the 90's)

DONEGAL TOWN

The Mill Park Hotel have reduced rates

The Abbey Hotel  also has reduced the rate (But not the wedding rates or Sunday Lunch Rates see comments for further details)


The Following DO NOT


LETTERKENNY

The Paper Post (beside the post office) say no

Stateside (although that could change next week)

The Silver Tassie

Donegal Post haven't changed their price on the paper

DONEGAL TOWN

Toni's Bistro

Harbour Restaurant

Chadpur Indian Restaurant

Diamond Grill and Take Away

Central Hotel

Dom's Pier One

The Manhattan Steakhouse

The Below Companies are unavailable for comment ... so make up your own mind!

Charlies Cafe

Ard Ri

Station House

The Mount Errigal

The Clanree

Castle Grove Hotel

I'd also like to point out that I have contacted the majority of these these places myself but some come in from comments and emails, I will try and confirm all but if you see somewhere wrongly mentioned please comment.

If you wish to add to this list please comment below and if your company has updated their rules since this was posted please contact me and i will update the blog accordingly

The Reason Behind This Blog

"Ireland's minister of finance announced that a new reduced 9% V.A.T. rate will be introduced from 1.7.2011 to 31.12.2013.
The reduced rate will apply, inter- alia, to restaurant and catering services, hotel accommodation, admission to cinemas, theatres and certain musical performances, museums and art galleries admission, amusement parks, hairdressing services and printed matters such as maps and leaflets.
The measure will be provided for in the forthcoming finance bill 2, 2011."

So I was talking with some friends about this new tax rate introduced in Ireland on July 1st. Effectively it means that certain shops and services have had the VAT reduced from 13.5 % to 9%, a reduction of 4.5%. This reduction has the intention of lowering the cost of certain things to encourage spending in the community and hopefully kickstart the economy again.
This 4.5% reduction in VAT is a double edged sword however as the tax reduction means less money is going to important services like Hospitals, Healthcare, Education etc etc. However it is hoped that more spending and more business will mean that overall the tax takings will actually rise.
well that's if businesses actually pass this saving on to their customers but surely they would wouldn't they?
When my friend told me about going to the cinema 2 nights ago (the 5th of July) I asked him did he notice any price difference in the tickets as Cinemas are covered under the entertainment services of the new tax rate. He said no and that they had been charged the same price as always and as he didn't know at the time he didn't bring it up with the staff or manager.
I decided then to look into this a bit more. I rang the cinema thinking that maybe they didn't know that the change affected them (hey its tax its not the easiest thing in the world). When I asked them however if they had reduced their prices in accordance with the new tax rate implemented July 1st I was met with an abrupt NO, taken aback I asked were they going to implement it in the near future? again I was told NO. and when I pushed further and asked if they were ever going to implement it I was told NO again. no reasons of why just NO.
Inspired by this shear brazen act of profiteering at the countries expense really I wondered was there any other places in Letterkenny that were doing the same thing so I began ringing every restaurant, hotel, hairdresser pretty much everything that falls under the new rate and asked them had they changed their prices accordingly.
This blog shows what I found.