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VAT and Agriculture: Lessons from Europe

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  • Sijbren Cnossen

Abstract

Little has been written about the treatment of agriculture under the value added tax (VAT). This article attempts to fill the void by surveying and evaluating the situation in the Member States of the European Union (EU) and some other countries. Farmers are often exempted from VAT for administrative and political reasons. But this means that the VAT on their inputs cannot be ‘washed out’ through the tax deduction/credit mechanism. It then has to be borne by the farmers themselves or becomes an indeterminate and capricious element in consumer prices. To compensate farmers for the uncompensated VAT on inputs, the EU has devised a flat-rate scheme that permits them to charge a presumptive rate (approximately equal to the effective VAT rate on sector-wide inputs) on their sales to taxable agro-processing firms which, in turn, are permitted to take a deduction for this flat-rate addition from the VAT on their sales. Obviously, the flat-rate scheme is an arbitrary way of trying to achieve equal treatment between exempt and taxable farmers and between exempt farm products and other taxable goods and services. Full taxation, subject to the general threshold, appears to be the preferred choice.

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  • Sijbren Cnossen, 2017. "VAT and Agriculture: Lessons from Europe," CPB Discussion Paper 341, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpb:discus:341
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dora Benedek & Ruud A. De Mooij & Michael Keen & Philippe Wingender, 2015. "Estimating VAT Pass Through," CESifo Working Paper Series 5531, CESifo.
    2. Michael Keen, 2013. "The Anatomy of the Vat," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(2), pages 423-446, June.
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    7. Leon Bettendorf & Sijbren Cnossen, 2015. "The Long Shadow of the European VAT, Exemplified by the Dutch Experience," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 71(1), pages 118-139, March.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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