Counting the Costs of VAT Compliance

Abstract

VAT is an important revenue source for all governments levying the tax. The collections fund important public goods and services that enhance the lives of those persons whose consumption triggers the tax and who ultimately bear the burden of the tax. Along the supply chain to that final consumption, however, a chain of intermediary businesses often incurs substantial compliance burdens. These costs, both monetary and in kind, contribute nothing to the public revenue or to the businesses that incur them. They are, moreover, more often than not very regressive, impacting small business far more severely than the largest enterprises in the economy. Businesses and the larger economy and society stand to gain if policy, design or administrative practice reforms can reduce the dead-weight losses from these burdens.

Note: “Reprinted from Virtues and Fallacies of VAT: An Evaluation after 50 Years, 2021, pp. 125-150, with permission of Kluwer Law International.”