h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: VAT- Value Added Tax - A4051711
Author: royalleothelion (creator of tomato wear and thingite guard of the kings potty)explore Lantelotus at A3778473 - U998559

This is an entry I have saved from the flea market, it is not yet perfect so please give constructive criticism

Yay! I'm glad to see this one was picked up from the flea market.

On a quick read through, my first thought is that it might be better if the first three footnotes were integrated into the text, rather than being footnotes.


Mikey

Perhaps a mention that it also essentially another tax on the profit of industry that is paid by the consumer, and thus grossly unjust - like all taxes.

that would be an opinion and not factual
if you believe that all members of a society have a duty to contribute to things that society provides then some form of taxation is inevitable
2 problems that there are with VAT is essentially it turns the shopkeeper into a taxman and makes him/her do the governments job for them and that as a tax on goods it hits people at the lower end of the income scale harder than those higher up
on the plus side from governments point of view it is cheap to administer and difficult to evade

'if you believe that all members of a society have a duty to contribute to things that society provides then some form of taxation is inevitable'

No, you would buy the things you need. However if you are saying that society has a duty to provide for those that are unable to provide for themselves, then we have a different debate - that does not belong here - good point about the shop-keeper becoming an un-paid taxman, and ironically bearing a legal responsibility for the tax's collection.

there are things called public goods
eg roads, refuse collection, police, sewers
everybody in society benefits from them even if they might not be willing to pay for them
I can't see how they can be paid for without taxation
our water companies are privatised but water rates remain and are effectively a tax

Thank youu for all your replies

I'm very glad to see this one back in PR

I'm not entirely sure what the relevance is of the third paragraph in the introduction.

Did we ever find out the name of the bloke who first devised VAT?

"and replaced the existing Sales Tax with VAT"
'sales tax'

'6th Directive' and '6th directive' both appear in the entry.

"The end consumer pays £11.75 for the socks"
I think that must be a hangover from the original version since the rest of the entry deals with towels.

"The retailer can reclaim any Vat it is charged"
'The retailer can reclaim any VAT they are charged'

Tribunal - tribunal

Tribunal Chairman - tribunal chairman

The example section needs to state the VAT rate being used - it's not '(in the UK)' as the rate may be changed any time. Also there are several different rates in this country - 17.5% is the standard rate, but there is a domestic fuel rate of 5% (the EU minimum).

It is worth mentioning that once VAT is applied to a good it can never be zero rated again under the EU rules (hence the 5% fuel rate).

Some examples of zero rated goods (currently): children's clothes - which means that petite people don't have to pay VAT; books (but if they have a CD attached they do have VAT applied) & newspapers etc.; materials for new houses (but the very same materials for a renovation do have VAT applied).

There are some very strange oddities for example: "If you send commercial data by email or over the Web, it's liable for VAT (17.5 per cent value-added tax, imposed in the UK on services) on the value of the data. Which of course with commercial data can be quite high. But if you print that same data out and send it on paper, by post or fax, it is not liable for VAT." See full details at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/05/commercial_data_sent_by_email_liable_for_vat/

I have done some of your requests

Well, if you've attended to some of the issues, the thing to do here is to tell us which ones you have, and which ones you haven't. And for the ones you haven't, you let us know why -- is it because you disagree (and why), is it because you haven't had time yet, etc.

Nice Entry... Are you still around?

Details:
"He/she is not entitled to reclaim this amount and the Govt gets to keep the cash." Except: If he/she is not a UK resident, and takes the towel to his country he/she may have the VAT reimbursed (minus bureaucracy costs)!



HELL

on the subject of VAT-exempt food is but takeaways aren't
cakes aren't but biscuits are
there was a long running dispute between McVities and C&E as to whether a Jaffa Cake was a cake or a biscuit
Can't recall who won

It's explained in the final paragraph of the entry BC

either my memories gone completely or that was added since I last read the entry

As far as I recall it's always been part of the entry.

Time to start eating more carrots (eye improvement ), or more fish (brain improvement ) perhaps?

if its fish I'm in trouble since I'm vegetarian

Whilst digging around Google trying to find the name of the 18th C German economist, I came across this page which has a few interesting facts that could be incorporated into the History section http://www.iran-daily.com/1384/2279/html/focus.htm#63054

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Well done