IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v249y2025ics0047272725001458.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

VAT incidence in real VAT systems

Author

Listed:
  • Brusco, Giacomo
  • Velayudhan, Tejaswi

Abstract

This paper studies the price impacts of Value Added Tax (VAT) in the presence of size-based exemptions, which are set relatively high in the firm-size distribution in developing contexts. In addition to the standard determinants of tax incidence, we show that pass-through of VAT to consumer prices will depend on the substitutability of registered and unregistered varieties of taxed goods, on pass-through at upstream stages, and on the extent of segregation between registered and unregistered supply chains. The exemption can also distort the quality of goods produced. We show that these mechanisms are empirically important in the context of a VAT in India, where those who consume at unregistered firms nevertheless bear some of the tax burden.

Suggested Citation

  • Brusco, Giacomo & Velayudhan, Tejaswi, 2025. "VAT incidence in real VAT systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:249:y:2025:i:c:s0047272725001458
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105447
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272725001458
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105447?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • O23 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Development
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:249:y:2025:i:c:s0047272725001458. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.