【oriah mountain dreamer the invitation pdf】UK abolishes 'sexist' tax on women's sanitary products
LONDON (AP) — Britain on Friday became the latest country to abolish the so-called "tampon tax,oriah mountain dreamer the invitation pdf” eliminating sales taxes on women's sanitary products.
The move was widely praised by women's rights advocates as well as proponents of the country's departure from the European Union.
Treasury chief Rishi Sunak had committed to ending the widely unpopular tax on tampons and sanitary pads in his budget in March but the change could only take effect Friday after Britain had finally left the economic orbit of the European Union.
Under EU law, nations cannot reduce the rate of value-added tax on menstrual products below 5% as they are deemed to be luxury items and not essentials. Ireland is the only EU country that does not charge a levy on sanitary products as its zero tax rate was in place before the EU set its floor.
“Sanitary products are essential, so it’s right that we do not charge VAT,” said Sunak. “We have already rolled out free sanitary products in schools, colleges and hospitals and this commitment takes us another step closer to making them available and affordable for all women.”
Britain officially left the bloc’s vast single market
for people, goods and services at 11 p.m. London time on Thursday, giving it greater scope to set its own laws. A new U.K.-EU trade deal will bring new restrictions and red tape, but for British Brexit supporters, it means reclaiming national independence from the EU and its rules. They pointed to the abolition of the tampon tax as an early positive change from Brexit.
Britain's treasury has previously estimated the move will save the average woman nearly 40 pounds ($55) over her lifetime.
“It’s been a long road to reach this point, but at last, the sexist tax that saw sanitary products classed as nonessential, luxury items can be consigned to the history books," said Felicia Willow, chief of the Fawcett Society, a women’s rights charity.
Many other countries have also eliminated the tampon tax, including Australia, Canada and India. In the United States, several states including New York and Florida have also nixed the tax.
___
Follow all AP stories on Brexit at
https://apnews.com/Brexit
View comments
(责任编辑:Exploration)
- ·5%, led by a 17% increase in average ticket and a slight decline in traffic. Growth in the quarter reflected the impact of households stocking up on essentials like paper goods and cleaning supplies as the pandemic became a nationwide concern, along with strength in discretionary categories as the quarter came to a close and stimulus dollars and tax refunds were disbursed.
As shown below, the results in the quarter materially changed the trend in two-year stacked comps for each of the banners, along with a significant acceleration for consolidated comps.
The increase in consolidated comps was the primary driver of an 8% increase in revenues to $6.3 billion. The company ended the quarter with 15,370 locations, up less than 1% year-over-year. This reflects a 7% increase in Dollar Tree units, offset by a 4% decline in Family Dollar units.
The top-line results at each banner flowed through to their respective income statements, with Dollar Tree gross margins and operating margins declining year-over-year while Family Dollar gross margins and operating margins expanded year-over-year. On a consolidated basis, gross margins contracted by 120 basis points in the quarter to 28.5%, reflective of a shift to lower-margin consumables, tariff costs and the impact of markdowns from the Easter headwinds at the Dollar Tree banner. The company saw slight operating leverage on SG&A from higher comps, with the net result being an 80 basis point contraction in operating margins to 5.8%, with operating income declining 5% to $366 million. This is not adjusted for $73 million of pandemic-related costs, such as PPE supplies.
In the first quarter, the company opened 85 stores (net of closures) and completed 220 Family Dollar renovations to the H2 format. Importantly, comps at renovated Family Dollar stores continue to outpace the chain average by more than 10%. On the call, management indicated that they plan on reducing both the number of new store openings (from 550 to 500) and the number of H2 renovations (from 1,250 to 750) in 2020.
Personally, given the fact that Family Dollar is seeing material benefits to its business from the pandemic with new or lapsed customers coming into its stores, I think the company should try to get more aggressive with its renovation plans, not less. On the other hand, you could argue that renovations cause short-term disruptions and limit their ability to fully capitalize on the business momentum they are currently experiencing.
As a result of fewer new stores and remodels, management now expects 2020 capital expenditures to total $1.0 billion compared to previous guidance of $1.2 billion. In addition, the company has temporarily suspended share repurchases. At quarter's end, the company had $1.8 billion in cash on its balance sheet compared to $4.3 billion in total debt.
Conclusion
In recent years, Dollar Tree has been a tale of two cities. While its namesake banner has generally delivered impressive financial results, Family Dollar has been a persistent underperformer. This quarter, those results flipped, and given what we've seen in the weeks since quarter's end, there's a decent possibility that we will see something similar in the coming months. As the CEO noted, the second quarter is off to a very good start at Family Dollar.
Here's the important question: how useful is that information is in terms of making future predictions about the business? Will recent success at Family Dollar translate into long-term success for the banner? The optimistic take is that new or lapsed customers, especially those visiting the renovated stores, could become recurring business for the banner. The pessimistic take is that they have experienced short-term success out of necessity as people went to any store that was open to try and find essentials like toilet paper and hand sanitizer that were largely out of stock throughout the retail landscape. From that view, many of these customers could abandon the retailer when life returns to normal. As Philbin noted on the conference call, early on [during the pandemic], folks needed us. Will people still shop as much at Family Dollar when it's no longer a necessity?
Personally, I do not place too much weight on the recent results. I will need to see incremental data points that indicate that Family Dollar has truly won sustained business from these new customers. While I still believe that the Dollar Tree banner is a well-positioned retailer with attractive unit returns, I'm not yet willing to say the same thing for Family Dollar. For that reason, along with the recent run-up in the stock price, I plan on staying on the sidelines for now.
Disclosure: None
Read more here:
Under Armour: A Tough Start to 2020
Walmart: Continued Omni-Channel Progress
Match: An Impressive Start to 2020
Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here.
This article first appeared on
GuruFocus
.
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with DLTR. Click here to check it out.
DLTR 30-Year Financial Data
The intrinsic value of DLTR
Peter Lynch Chart of DLTR
View comments
- ·What Is Parker-Hannifin's (NYSE:PH) P/E Ratio After Its Share Price Tanked?
- ·What Can We Learn About FRP Holdings' (NASDAQ:FRPH) CEO Compensation?
- ·Suzan Craig and Tahi Restore Nature and Make 100 Percent Natural, Genuine Honey
- ·RPT-Iowa's anger over Trump's ethanol policy gives Democrats opening
- ·Castlebar Capital Corp. Announces Termination of LOI Respecting Qualifying Transaction
- ·AppFolio, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2020 Financial Results
- ·Comcast Stock Rises 3%
- ·Great Ajax (AJX) Misses Q4 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
- ·Wells Fargo CEO tells Congress bank has doubled down on regulatory issues
- ·Data Science Salon Launches Three Four-Day Verticalized Virtual Salons
- ·More drugmakers hike U.S. prices as new year begins
- ·Does Market Volatility Impact Axovant Gene Therapies Ltd.'s (NASDAQ:AXGT) Share Price?
- ·Deutsche (DB) Ratings Affirmed by Moody's, Outlook Upgraded
- ·Will Fastly Continue to Surge Higher?
- ·Sanofi to Withdraw Zantac After FDA Warns of Carcinogens
- ·Global core material market size to record unprecedented growth through 2025
- ·Dow Jumps Over 5% as Stocks Finally Bounce Back
- ·Read This Before Selling Altura Mining Limited (ASX:AJM) Shares
- ·Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Crushed by ‘Exceptionally Comfortable’ Temps Ahead of EIA Data