In Poland VAT fraud used to be absolutely huge a bit under a decade ago. After the government established really strict tracking of invoices and they started go

In Poland VAT fraud used to be absolutely huge a bit under a decade ago. After the government established really strict tracking of invoices and they started going after the VAT gangs the budget revenues literally doubled in the span of few years. I have mixed feelings about VAT here. We have one of the highest rates in Europe on most goods(23%), but running a VAT registered company I do get the VAT on purchases back. However, in the UK, where I used to have my VAT business before I could keep 60% of the VAT my customers paid me with no expenses! This scheme had different percentages for different kinds of businesses. In my case it was 13% of the net value could be kept if I remember correctly. It sure was sweet to bill a customer £10k, get £12k paid and only send £700 of VAT to the tax man without having any expenses! (the income tax is another story and it is actually way better in Poland than in UK, but that is beside the point). So despite having run VAT registered businesses for over a decade in two EU countries I'm confused what is it that Japanese government is doing now and why. If anyone can explain it comparing it to VAT/sales tax in other countries that would be great