Value-added tax, or VAT, first introduced less than 50 years ago, is now a pivotal component of tax systems around the world. The rapid and seemingly irresistible rise of the VAT is probably the most important tax development of the latter twentieth century, and certainly the most breathtaking. Written by a team of experts from the International Monetary Fund, this book examines the remarkable spread and current reach of the innovative tax, and draws lessons about the design and implementation of the VAT, as experienced by different countries around the world. How efficient is it as a tax, is it fair, and is it suitable for all countries are among the questions raised in this highly informative and well-researched book that also looks at the likely future of the tax.
Author(s): Liam Ebrill, Michael Keen, Jean-Paul Bodin, Victoria Summers
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: xvi+223
1 The Nature, Importance, and Spread of the VAT
2 Basic Design Issues
3 Is the VAT a Particularly Effective and Efficient Tax?
4 Understanding the Revenue Performance of VATs
5 Collection Costs and the Complexity of VAT
6 A Survey of Advice and Experience
7 Rate Differentiation
8 Exemptions
9 Treatment of Agriculture
10 Poverty, Fairness, and the VAT
11 The Threshold
12 Organization of the VAT Administration
13 Self-Assessment by Taxpayers
14 Audit
15 Refunds
16 Small Countries and the VAT
17 Interjurisdictional Issues
18 What Next for the VAT?
Appendices
Appendix I: Data
Appendix II: Effective Rates of VAT
Appendix III: Sources of Gain in Replacing Tariffs by a Consumption Tax
