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US states sure do love theirs! down to every damn municipality. I hope Volcker will prevail and US will get VAT finally.
by borism 16y ago
US states sure do love theirs! down to every damn municipality.
I hope Volcker will prevail and US will get VAT finally.
- cmelbye 16y agoSales tax in my municipality is less than half of UK's VAT, and food and clothing are exempt from it. You're right, I sure do love it.
- ElliotH 16y agoFood and childrens clothing are also exempt from UK VAT.
- parenthesis 16y agoTo be pedantic, food (except for, roughly, `luxury' and catered foods), children's clothing, and books, amongst other things, are zero-rated, rather than exempt (a separate category which includes medical treatment and education).
- rmc 16y agoSome plain foods have zzero vat. More luxurous food is taxed. This is important when you think of jaffa cakes, are they a biscuit or a cake? If they are a buscuit, then they don't have vat, if cake, then the price goes up
- hugh3 16y agoIf I understand correctly this leads to some bizarre inconsistencies; for instance bras up to a certain size (34B?) are "children's clothing" and untaxed, a fact which must cause dubious rejoicing among the less-endowed women of Britain. Also I seem to recall that some foods are taxed differently depending on whether you intend to eat them in or take them away -- even for things where it makes no difference to how they package them. If you tell Pret A Manger that you're going to take your chocolate mousse away but wind up sitting down and eating it in the store, you're breaking the law. (Not sure whether that's the VAT or some other issue).
- ajg1977 16y agoVAT and sales tax are very different things. It would not be true to say something would cost more or less depending on whether sales tax or VAT was paid by the consumer. Please educate yourself ;)
- travisp 16y agoWhat makes you think a VAT will stop municipal and state sales taxes? States and cities will not easily give up this revenue. More likely, we'll just have VAT in addition to everything else we now have.
- protomyth 16y agoIf the US gets a VAT, we better get a lot of other taxes removed in the process. My wish is that we simplify our tax system to the point where I don't need software and a tax attorney to figure out my taxes. I am not much into laws that require me to hire people / buy software to comply with (maybe, gotta love TurboTax audit insurance). I would prefer a flat-rate tax per taxpayer (skip all the marriage questions.
- yequalsx 16y agoYes, our politicians love their taxes. Unfortunately for us a very high portion goes to nationalized militarism. We are getting the bang for our buck but it's in form of a military power and not in the form of taking care of each other. My hope is that the Pentagon will get its budget slashed.
- X-Istence 16y agoActually, instead of a VAT tax, how about the US starts advertising the price of an item with the tax already calculated in? That way when I am going to the store and I buy a loaf of bread and it says $2.50 that is what I actually pay. Or when I go buy a new laptop for $499 that is ACTUALLY what I pay. Shopping in The Netherlands where I am from is much simpler, I can keep a running tally in my head and not have to worry about getting to the register and having another X amount added on top because the local government wants their share, makes managing money so much more complicated.