[keithpeter]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/index.htm?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=p...

Not quite easy but if your business turns over more than £79k then you will have registered for VAT in the UK.

A US state VAT system would, presumably, result in a matrix multiplier (52 by 52 or whatever the number of different rates are) and require companies to track transactions in the various states.

[Dylan16807]

52x52 would be so easy compared to what we have right now, with sales tax varying street by street based on vague and inconsistent categories. Plus wouldn't it be closer to adding two out of 52 numbers together? Either way you can fit the rates on a single piece of paper and be done with it.

[tehwalrus]

State of seller determines the tax rate.

In the EU, if you're British and buying from Germany, you pay German, not British, VAT rates - they should copy that.

Agreed though, that British VAT isn't as simple as it could be (whole categories exempt, etc.)

[TomaszZielinski]

Not quite true.

The rule of thumb is that VAT is a tax on consumers, not businesses. Of course there are hundreds of exceptions to that.

If you are a British company buying services from Germany then the seller shouldn't charge you a penny, then you charge the British VAT on the purchase and then deduct it if only the purchase is related to _your_ taxable sale(s).

But if you are a British consumer then the seller should charge you the German VAT.

That's the general case, there are exceptions to that and exceptions to exceptions so don't bite me please :)

By the way, the national VAT bills have to be complex simply because they are meant to mirror the EU directive: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:...

[mjn]

That's not true in the EU across the board. If you're buying by mail-order, and the seller is above a certain size (small sellers exempt to reduce the compliance burden), they have to assess VAT based on the shipping address. For example, when I order from Amazon.co.uk to Denmark, Amazon charges me Denmark's VAT rates (which are higher and don't exempt books, alas).

[tehwalrus]

interesting! I was basing my knowledge here on having paid "German VAT" on a smartphone from amazon.de (they had it slightly cheaper and much earlier than anyone in the UK.) Maybe I got confused, but I was sure at the time it was a different %age. Maybe I was above the threshold.