General
Modernizing VATs in Africa
Abstract: Modernizing VATs in Africa enables policymakers, professionals, and students to analyse African tax systems to ascertain how they can be modernized. It explains the case for VAT base-broadening over rate-increasing, arguing that exemptions and zero rates mainly accrue benefits for higher-income groups. Even more persuasively, it demonstrates that the net result of fiscal systems can be equalizing if the revenue of broad-based VATs is used to finance in-kind transfers, such as healthcare and education. VAT modernization should be used to enable governments to finance development; Modernizing VATs in Africa puts a compelling case forward for how and why this can be achieved.
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Citation: Cnossen, Sijbren. Modernizing VATs in Africa. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198844075.001.0001.
International VAT/GST Guidelines
Abstract: The International VAT/GST Guidelines now present a set of internationally agreed standards and recommended approaches to address the issues that arise from the uncoordinated application of national VAT systems in the context of international trade. They focus in particular on trade in services and intangibles, which poses increasingly important challenges for the design and operation of VAT systems worldwide. They notably include the recommended principles and mechanisms to address the challenges for the collection of VAT on cross-border sales of digital products that had been identified in the context of the OECD/G20 Project on Base and Erosion and Profit Shifting (the BEPS Project).
These Guidelines were adopted as a Recommendation by the Council of the OECD in September 2016.
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Citation: International VAT/GST Guidelines. OECD Publishing, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264271401-en.
Value Added Tax: A Comparative Approach
Abstract: This book integrates legal, economic, and administrative materials about the value added tax (VAT) to present the only comparative approach to the study of VAT law. The comparative presentation of this volume offers an analysis of policy issues relating to tax structure and tax base as well as insights into how cases arising out of VAT disputes have been resolved. Its principal purpose is to provide comprehensive teaching tools – laws, cases, analytical exercises, and questions drawn from the experience of countries and organizations around the world.
This second edition includes new VAT-related developments in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia and adds new chapters on VAT avoidance and evasion and on China's VAT. Designed to illustrate, analyze, and explain the principal theoretical and operating features of value added taxes, including their adoption and implementation, this book will be an invaluable resource for tax practitioners and government officials.
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Citation: Schenk, Alan, Victor Thuronyi, and Wei Cui. Value Added Tax: A Comparative Approach. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107337671.
Value Added Tax and Excises
Abstract: The thirty years since the Meade Report (Meade, 1978) have seen a remarkable shift in the balance of taxation in the UK towards the Value Added Tax (VAT), which now accounts for around one sixth of all tax revenue. Reliance on alcohol and tobacco excises, in contrast, has fallen. This chapter considers the strategic design issues that we believe should shape the future course of UK policy on VAT and these excises. Given the strength of EU restrictions on indirect tax policy, this also means, to some degree, considering their future in Europe more widely.
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Citation: Crawford, Ian, Michael Keen, and Stephen Smith. “Value Added Tax and Excises.” In Dimensions of Tax Design: The Mirrlees Review. Institute for Fiscal Studies. Oxford University Press, 2010. https://ifs.org.uk/books/value-added-tax-and-excises.
The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries
Abstract: Value-added tax (VAT) dominates tax systems around the world. But should every country have a VAT? Is VAT always as good as it could be in economic, equity and administrative terms? In developing and transitional countries the answers to such questions are critical to stability, growth and development. VAT is a critical fiscal tool in most countries. But VAT can sometimes be better designed and almost always better administered. The key questions that must be answered in designing and implementing VAT are essentially the same in all countries. But different tax designs may best suit different countries facing different circumstances.
This book reviews experiences with VATs around the world and assesses how the choice of particular design features may affect outcomes in particular contexts.
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Citation: Bird, Richard, and Pierre-Pascal Gendron. The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619366.
The Modern VAT
Abstract: 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 IMF, 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? These are among the questions raised. This highly informative and well-researched book also looks at the likely future of the tax.
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Citation: Ebrill, Liam P., Michael Keen, and Victoria J. Perry. The Modern VAT. International Monetary Fund, 2001. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781589060265.071.
Value Added Tax: International Practice and Problems
Abstract: This book, by Alan A. Tait, is an examination of VAT. It looks at problems and theoretical options and potential impacts, as well as detailing the practical aspects of implementing new tax structures. The author advances arguments for and against alternative policies and illustrates his study with international examples from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. He suggests that countries can learn from each other's experiences with VAT.
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Citation: Tait, Alan, A. Value Added Tax: International Practice and Problems. International Monetary Fund, 1988. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781557750129.071.