Value-added tax
Value-added tax (VAT), is a consumption tax levied on the sale of goods and services. The difference from conventional sales tax is that it is levied on every business as a fraction of the price of each sale they make, but they are in turn reimbursed VAT on their purchases. End-consumers of products and services cannot recover VAT on purchases. In this way, the total tax levied is a fraction of the value added by a business to its products, and most of the cost of collecting the tax is borne by business, rather than by the state. VAT was invented because very high sales taxes and tariffs encourage cheating and smuggling. The VAT is common in countries of the European Union.
In some countries, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, this tax is known as "goods and services tax (GST)".
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2 VAT Rates 3 External link |
| Country | Rate | |
| Standard | Reduced | |
| Singapore | 4.0 % | |
| Canada | 7.0% | |
| Switzerland | 7.6 % | 2.3 % |
| Australia | 10.0 % | |
| New Zealand | 12.5 % | |
| Luxembourg | 15.0 % | 3.0 % |
| Germany | 16.0 % | 7.0 % |
| Spain | 16.0 % | 7.0 % |
| Portugal | 17.0 % | 12.0 % |
| Greece | 18.0 % | 8.0 % |
| United Kingdom | 17.5 % | 5.0 % |
| Estonia | 18.0 % | |
| Netherlands | 19.0 % | 6.0 % |
| Romania | 19.0 % | 9.0 % |
| France | 19.6 % | 5.5 % |
| Italy | 20.0 % | 10.0 % |
| Austria | 20.0 % | 14.0 % |
| Ireland | 21.0 % | 12.5 % |
| Belgium | 21.0 % | 12.0 % |
| Czech Republic | 22.0 % | 5.0 % |
| Finland | 22.0 % | 17.0 % |
| Croatia | 22.0 % | |
| Norway | 24.0 % | |
| Hungary | 25.0 % | 12.0 % |
| Sweden | 25.0 % | 12.0 % |
| Denmark | 25.0 % | |
See also: Sales tax, GST (Canada)
http://www.hotrec.org/areas/taxation/04.html - European VAT rates by service type.
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,2297,sid%253D2959%2526cid%253D5028,00.html - VAT/GST sales tax rates in over two hundred countries around the worldExternal link
