4 MCV 15/10/10 NEWS [LEADER]
FOOD FOR THOUGHT TESCO IS too much of an easy target for many critics. The company best known for a
competitive food offer has had countless legal cases brought against it and accusations thrown at it – ranging from unfair trading
to exploitation. Outside of groceries and in games it is often
accused of slashing the bottom out of the market, discounting games below cost so that indies and specialists just cannot compete. Tesco is the bad guy, right? Read the comments from angry readers on
MCVuk.comand you’d be inclined to agree, but the Tesco I met this week was nothing of the sort. The firm’s entertainment team were brimming with ideas on how to improve its offer, were excited by upcoming releases, concerned about the environment, and even had a few nice words to say about their competitors, and not just GAME but arch-nemesis Asda, too. It wasn’t quite what I expected from a commercial goliath that just posted six month profits of £1.18 billion. In fact, they sounded a lot more like – dare I say –
games retailers. And that’s just it. Behind Tesco’s corporate facade
sits Rob Salter, John Stanhope, Joanna Hunt, Mark Burgess and a team of some of the finest games buyers out there.
“Behind Tesco’s corporate facade sits some of the finest games buyers out there. They have no interest in devaluing the market.”
These are people who have no interest in
devaluing the market or adopting spoiler tactics to upset its rivals. Ultimately, the team takes a lot of flak – but has
never given any back. In fact, they spend most of their days scrapping with the other departments for every inch of floor space and every penny of marketing to try to build a credible games offer in what has been a tough year for the sector. And they’re succeeding. Like it or loathe it, supermarkets are now major
players in the games sector. As we said in this column last week, they are here
to stay. They represent a changing retail landscape for entertainment, and in their own way are helping broaden the games market to an even larger audience that shop in their stores. Of course people will always sling mud at Tesco,
and sometimes it is fully deserved. But perhaps the world’s third largest retailer isn’t quite the all encompassing evil that some seem to think it is.
Christopher.Dring@intentmedia.co.uk
HMRC warns over ‘too good to be true’ game stock deals
Tax sting mounts – beware cut-price hardware, says Government by Christopher Dring
RETAILERS must be more vigilant with rogue traders if they want to avoid having their tax returns voided.
As we revealed on the cover of this issue, Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs is mounting efforts to clamp down on temporary dodgy distributors who sell on games stock without paying VAT. And when those buying the stock try to claim tax back, they could get a shock as HMRC is obligated not to pay out. “The scenario described is known as Missing Trader Intra Community or MTIC fraud,”
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suspected, HMRC is duty bound to verify transactions to ensure that the VAT has not been defrauded.
Businesses must undertake good risk management. If a sale appears too good to be true then it probably is.
Steven Pope, HMRC
HMRC’s Steven Pope explained to MCV.
“HMRC have identified suspected MTIC fraud via supplies of games consoles. Where MTIC fraud is
POINTS MEAN PRIZES AS NEW GAMESTATION LOYALTY CARD ARRIVES
GAMESTATION HAS made good on its promise to launch a loyalty card for its customers. The new system offers game-like Experience Points to those buying and trading-in games. Customers not only get a typical 2.5 per cent of every purchase back in the form of XP, but extra ‘accolade’ rewards when they hit trade-in milestones and when the community collectively unlocks millions of XP. Parent The GAME Group also recently redesigned the GAME Reward Card.
any VAT linked to those transactions.”
HMRC is working closely with businesses to raise awareness of MTIC fraud, with advice on how to identify suspected trading available at the HMRC website.
“Where HMRC identify fraud and can demonstrate that a trader knew or should have known that their trading was linked to VAT fraud then HMRC will deny repayment of
”
Pope added: “Businesses can help protect themselves from this threat by undertaking good risk management and KYC checks as part of their normal compliance and risk management processes. If a transaction appears to be too good to be true then it probably is.” More info can be found at
tinyurl.com/MCV-HMRC-VAT
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