IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v50y2022i1p4-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The VAT at 100: A Retrospective Survey and Agenda for Future Research

Author

Listed:
  • Joel Slemrod
  • Tejaswi Velayudhan

Abstract

We take stock of what is known about the consequences of actual value-added tax (VAT) systems, nearly 100 years since its conception. We benchmark it to the tax it most often replaced—the retail sales tax (RST). We do this not because we advocate a return to the RST, but because it allows us to evaluate the performance of two tax instruments in actual practice instead of comparing them to their idealized versions, which are never achieved. Doing so highlights different areas of focus than traditional comparisons to the “good†VAT. Like the RST, the VAT is weak at the final stage and technological advances that ameliorate VAT issues could also be applied to the RST. VAT introduces new evasion opportunities not possible in an RST such as invoice mills and carousel fraud. We propose new metrics and a research agenda to evaluate the “health†of the real VAT.

Suggested Citation

  • Joel Slemrod & Tejaswi Velayudhan, 2022. "The VAT at 100: A Retrospective Survey and Agenda for Future Research," Public Finance Review, , vol. 50(1), pages 4-32, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:50:y:2022:i:1:p:4-32
    DOI: 10.1177/10911421221094595
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10911421221094595
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/10911421221094595?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li Liu & Ben Lockwood & Miguel Almunia & Eddy H. F. Tam, 2021. "VAT Notches, Voluntary Registration, and Bunching: Theory and U.K. Evidence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(1), pages 151-164, March.
    2. Qian, Nancy & Liu, Yu & Wen, Jaya & Fan, Haichao, 2018. "The Dynamic Effects of Computerized VAT Invoices on Chinese Manufacturing Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 12786, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Harju, Jarkko & Matikka, Tuomas & Rauhanen, Timo, 2019. "Compliance costs vs. tax incentives: Why do entrepreneurs respond to size-based regulations?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 139-164.
    4. Paul Carrillo & Dina Pomeranz & Monica Singhal, 2017. "Dodging the Taxman: Firm Misreporting and Limits to Tax Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 144-164, April.
    5. James,Kathryn, 2015. "The Rise of the Value-Added Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107044128, October.
    6. Grubert, Harry & Mackie, James B. III, 2000. "Must Financial Services Be Taxed Under a Consumption Tax?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(1), pages 23-40, March.
    7. Dharmapala, Dhammika & Slemrod, Joel & Wilson, John Douglas, 2011. "Tax policy and the missing middle: Optimal tax remittance with firm-level administrative costs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9-10), pages 1036-1047, October.
    8. Youssef Benzarti & Alisa Tazhitdinova, 2021. "Do Value-Added Taxes Affect International Trade Flows? Evidence from 30 Years of Tax Reforms," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 469-489, November.
    9. Slemrod, Joel & Collins, Brett & Hoopes, Jeffrey L. & Reck, Daniel & Sebastiani, Michael, 2017. "Does credit-card information reporting improve small-business tax compliance?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1-19.
    10. Keen, Michael, 2008. "VAT, tariffs, and withholding: Border taxes and informality in developing countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(10-11), pages 1892-1906, October.
    11. Bird,Richard & Gendron,Pierre-Pascal, 2011. "The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107401440, September.
    12. David A. Weisbach, 2019. "Financial Services under a Consumption Tax: Grubert and Mackie (2000) Revisited," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 72(1), pages 237-250, March.
    13. Bachas, Pierre & Fattal Jaef, Roberto N. & Jensen, Anders, 2019. "Size-dependent tax enforcement and compliance: Global evidence and aggregate implications," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 203-222.
    14. James Alm & Keith Finlay, 2013. "Who Benefits from Tax Evasion?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 139-154, September.
    15. John M. Foster, 2014. "Tax Exporting and the Business Share of Sales Tax Levies," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 80-99, December.
    16. Zodrow, George R., 1999. "The Sales Tax, the VAT, and Taxes in Between--or, Is the Only Good NRST a "VAT in Drag"?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 3), pages 429-42, September.
    17. Keen, Michael & Smith, Stephen, 2006. "VAT Fraud and Evasion: What Do We Know and What Can Be Done?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(4), pages 861-887, December.
    18. Chun-Yan Kuo & Hatice Jenkins & Glenn Jenkins, 2006. "Is The Value Added Tax Naturally Progressive?," Working Paper 1059, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    19. Grubert, Harry & Mackie, James B. III, 2000. "Must Financial Services be Taxed Under a Consumption Tax?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 1), pages 23-40, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oyebola Okunogbe & Fabrizio Santoro, 2023. "Increasing Tax Collection in African Countries: The Role of Information Technology," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 32(Supplemen), pages 57-83.
    2. Okunogbe,Oyebola Motunrayo & Santoro,Fabrizio, 2022. "Increasing Tax Collection in African Countries : The Role of Information Technology," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10182, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asatryan, Zareh & Gomtsyan, David, 2020. "The incidence of VAT evasion," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-027, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. M. Martin Boyer & Philippe d'Astous, 2023. "Tax compliance and firm response to electronic sales monitoring," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 1430-1468, November.
    3. Bibek Adhikari, 2015. "When Does Introducing a Value-Added Tax Increase Economic Efficiency? Evidence from the Synthetic Control Method," Working Papers 1524, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2015.
    4. Jianjun Li & Xuan Wang, 2020. "Does VAT have higher tax compliance than a turnover tax? Evidence from China," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(2), pages 280-311, April.
    5. Keen, Michael & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "The value added tax: Its causes and consequences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 138-151, July.
    6. Giulia Mascagni & Roel Dom & Fabrizio Santoro & Denis Mukama, 2023. "The VAT in practice: equity, enforcement, and complexity," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(2), pages 525-563, April.
    7. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Emmanuel Saez, 2016. "Why Can Modern Governments Tax So Much? An Agency Model of Firms as Fiscal Intermediaries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(330), pages 219-246, April.
    8. Arbex, Marcelo Aarestru & Mattos, Enlinson, 2020. "Limited tax capacity and the optimal taxation of firms," Textos para discussão 539, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    9. Adhikari, Bibek & Alm, James & Harris, Timothy F., 2021. "Small business tax compliance under third-party reporting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    10. Fikri R. Arrachman & Riatu M. Qibthiyyah, 2018. "The Relationship of VAT Rate and Revenues in the Case of Informality," Economics and Finance in Indonesia, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, vol. 64, pages 73-96, Juni.
    11. Mr. Michael Keen, 2012. "Taxation and Development: Again," IMF Working Papers 2012/220, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Mazhar Waseem & Mazhar Waseem, 2019. "Information, Asymmetric Incentives, or Withholding? Understanding the Self-Enforcement of Value-Added Tax," CESifo Working Paper Series 7736, CESifo.
    13. Michael Keen, 2009. "What Do (and Don't) We Know about the Value Added Tax? A Review of Richard M. Bird and Pierre-Pascal Gendron's The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 159-170, March.
    14. Zanoni, Wladimir & Carrillo Maldonado, Paul A. & Pantano, Juan & Chuquimarca, Nicolás, 2024. "Irrational Bunching? Tax Regimes, Brackets, and Taxpayer Behaviors," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13582, Inter-American Development Bank.
    15. Christian Ebeke & M Mansour & Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, 2016. "The Power to Tax in Sub-Saharan Africa: LTUs, VATs, and SARAs," Working Papers halshs-01332049, HAL.
    16. Zhao, Zhiqi, 2022. "The optimal sales threshold separating taxpayers by size in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    17. Lourenço S. Paz, 2015. "The welfare impacts of a revenue-neutral switch from tariffs to VAT with intermediate inputs and a VAT threshold," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 465-498, June.
    18. Mattéo Godin & Romain Houssa & Kelbesa Megersa, 2017. "The Performance of VAT in DGD-partner countries," BeFinD Working Papers 0116, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    19. Miguel Almunia & David Lopez-Rodriguez, 2018. "Under the Radar: The Effects of Monitoring Firms on Tax Compliance," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-38, February.
    20. Antonio Gómez Gómez-Plana & Pedro Pascual Arzoz, 2011. "Fraude fiscal e IVA en España: incidencia en un modelo de equilibrio general," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 199(4), pages 9-52, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    value added tax; development; tax administration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

    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:sae:pubfin:v:50:y:2022:i:1:p:4-32. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.