增值税转型对企业增值税问题（外文文献）

Comparing the Value-Added Tax to the Retail Sales Tax RichardF Dye ,Thense MeGuine Joumal of Public Economics Apnl2011 Overviewof VAT More than 130 countries use VAT as akey source of govemment revenue VAT is aa general broad-based consumption tax assessed on the value added to goods and services. VAT is generally levied on value added at every stage of production, with a mechanism allowing the sellers a credit for the tax they have paid on their own Purchases of goods and services (input tax) against the taxes collected on their sales of oods and service (output tax) Generally VAT is: A general tax that applies to all commercial activities involving the production and distribution of goods and the provision of services; A consumption tax ultimately bome by the consumer; An indirect tax levied on the consumer as part of the price of goods or services 人 multistage tax visible at each stage of the production and distribution chain; and A factionally collected tax that uses a system of partial payments whereby a seller charges VAT on all ofits sales with a corresponding claim of credit for VAT that it has been charged on all ofits purchases. There are three methods of caleulating VAT liability: the creditrinvoice method the subtraction method， and the addition method This column deals with only the creditinvoice method，which is the most widely used_ The creditinvoice method highlights the VAT defining feature: the use of outpuat tax (tax collected on sales) and input ax (tax paid on purchases), Ataxpayer generally computes its VAT liability as the difference between the VAT charged on taxable sales and the VAT paid on axable purchases, This method requires the use of an invoice that separately lists the VAT component of all taxable sales The sales invoice for the seller becomes the purchase invoice of the buyer The sales invoice shows the output tax eollected and the purchase invoice shows the input tax paid，To summarize，taxpayers use the creditinvoice method to caleulate the amount of VAT to be remitted to the taxing authorities in the following manner Aggregate the VAT shown in the sales invoices (output tag; Aggregate the VAT shown in the purchase invoices (input tag: Subtract the input tax from the output tax and remitany balance to the govemment and In the event the input tax is greater than the output tax. The United States is the only member of the Organization of Economie Cooperation and Development that does not levy a WAT on a national level; however，VAT has beconme widely recognized as an important option in federal tax reform debates General VAT Computation To see VAT in action, consider Exhibit 1 on p. 612, which provides a simple inustration of how VAT is implemented in the production of bread, A farmer grows and sells wheat to a miller who grinds the wheat into flour The miller sells the flour  to a baker who makes the dough and bakes the bread The bread is then sold to the rocer who sells the bread to the final consumer In each stage of bread production, Valueisadded by the seller and VAT is levied on that amount To ensure that VAT is evied only on the value added by the producer VAT uses the creditinvoice mechanism._ Thus, on selling the bread to the grocer the baker collects $30 in VAT and claims an input credit of S15, the VAT paid when the baker purchased flour from he miller The baker ends up remitting a net VAT liability of S15 to the tax authorities, The total revenue ereated by VATis the sam of VAT liability collected in each stage of bread production，in this case $50，Although VAT is a broad-based general consumption tax (ie. iapplics to all final consumption), there are instances when the application of VAT is avoided, For example in a pure VAT state, the tax base would theoretically inclade services rendered by the government isolated sales of ones personal effects, and sales of personal services; however no mation employs a VAT with this tax base for administmative, polilical or social reasons (Schenk and Old man at 46)，Thus VAT provides exemptions or applies zero tax rating to certain transactions. "Exemption” means that the tader does not collect VAT on its sales and does not receive credits for VAT paid on its purchases of inputs. "Zero rating" means tharatraderis liable foran actual rate of VAT, which happens to be zero and receives creditfor input VAT paid Like transactions, Potential taxpayers can be exempt or zero rated An exempt traderis not part of the VAT system and is instead treated as a final Purchaser A zerorrated business does not colleet VAT on sales butis compensated for any input VAT it pays However if the exemption occurs at the last stage of production, there is a comesponding decrease in VAT revenue because there is no shifting and increase of tax burden the value added at the final stage simply escapes from VAT As shown in Exhibit 3, exempting the grocer from VAT means the grocer would not colleet VAT and would not be able to claim credit for the tax it paid on its purchase，The exemption at the last stage means that the grocer would become the final consumer of the bread Asa final consumer the grocer would pay the VAT as part of the purchase price No shifting and inerease of tax burden would occur because the grocer would motbeableto pass on the taxit paid fromitsinput An exemption occurring at the last stage of production means that the chain ofinput credits would cease at the stage prior io the last stage. Any value added after the bakers stage would simply escape the VAT、 resultingin adecrease in govemnmentrevenue due to the exemption. Overview of Retail Sales and Use Tax Before considering some of the similarities and differences between VAT and the retail sales ax (RST), this column next considers a typical retail sales ax system, The retail sales and use ax imposed by U.S, states is generally levied on all retail sales of tangible personal property that are not explicily exempted For services, only those explicity enumerated are taxable (Warren Gorham and Lamont 1998) The tax is enerally stated on the sales receiptand is collected from the consumer at the point of sale The retailer is responsible for remitting the tax collected to the tax authorities Im  theory retail sales tax isa single-stage tax imposed on the ultimate consumer which means that the tax should ap