The rate of VAT is that which prevails when the goods legally change hands. I don’t think the dealer would have any choice in the matter. He just collects the tax on behalf of HMG.
I’m sure that’s correct, but I’d hope that a good dealer wishing to maintain both sales and good will would, at the very least, meet the customer half way with any additional cost and take a bit of a hit on margin, but that might be wishful thinking!
I can’t remember when VAT previously increased from 15 to 17.5% whether or not we had any advance notice or whether it was immediate. If it’s from 1st Jan we might just be lucky! Of course, it may not happen at all and we can just worry about all the other tax increases or effective increases through frozen allowances etc ?