VAT went up and so does everything else

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SPAIN VAT, or IVA (Impuesto sobre Valor Añadido). went up on Saturday to 21% on most things. There are three categories of IVA in Spain: Super-reduced (most foods, books, newspapers & supplements, many pharmaceuticals), which stays at 4% but had several items moved up in categories (see our item here), including most school supplies, which jumped from 4 to 21% in one go;  Reduced (some foods -e.g. meat, fish, water),  which went up from 8% to 10%; and General (default tax applied to anything not included in the other categories), which went up from 18% to 21%. Several large shopping chains have announced they will not be applying the new taxes to their clients, at least for a while. Also, if experience is anything to go by, many of the smaller retailers will be applying it to items for which they have paid the lower tax when purchasing it, increasing their margins.  It is calculated that the increase will cost an average €437 per family per year. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ITEMS SUCH AS THIS WILL BE SUBJECT TO SUBSCRIPTION IN THE NEAR FUTURE. Subscription information will be available soon.