It may be early to be thinking about ‘back to school’ except that a lot of things are going to be far more expensive this year as IVA on many items is up from 4% to 21%.
The items up 17 points include school agendas, exam notebooks, coloured paper, wax items, compasses, writing books, book covers, notebooks, calligraphy items, music books, ruled paper, clay, paper and tempera painting elements.
Remaining at 4% IVA are school text books, maps and allied and albums. Other items will see an increase from 18% to 21% IVA.
Around 20% of families pay for materials each academic year. The IVA increase is expected to add €82 million to government coffers over the next two years.