Value Added Tax

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Value Added Tax The Principle of VAT Value added tax is an indirect tax which was introduced in 1973 and which is charged on the supply of a wide variety of goods and services. Current legislation is to be found in the Value Added Tax 1994 (VATA 1994) as amended by subsequent Finance Acts. VAT is administered by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) The basic principle of VAT is that tax should be charged at each stage of the production and distribution process but that the total tax due should be borne by the final consumer of the product: (a) Traders who are registered for VAT are required to charge VAT on their sales and must account for output tax to HMRC (b) Registered traders are allowed to recover from HMRC the input tax which they pay to their own suppliers (c) In effect, registered traders suffer no VAT and the total VAT is borne by the consumer at the end of the distribution chain. Example 1 A Ltd owns a quarry. It extracts stone from this quarry and sells the stone to B Ltd for £10,000 plus VAT. B Ltd converts all the stone into paving slabs and sells these slabs to C Ltd for £18,000 plus VAT. C Ltd owns and runs a garden centre, where the slabs are sold to the general public for a total of £32,000, plus VAT. Show how VAT is charged and collected at each stage of this process. (Assume that VAT is to be calculated at 17.5% throughout) Solution Cost Price before VAT Input tax Selling Price before VAT Output Tax Paid to HMRC £ £ £ £ £ A Ltd - - 10,000 1,750 1,750 B Ltd 10,000 1,750 18,000 3,150 1,400 C Ltd 18,000 3,150 32,000 5,600 2,450 Total VAT charged 5,600 None of the three companies involved suffers any net VAT. In each case, the total of input tax paid to suppliers and the amount due to HMRC is equal to the output tax received from customers. The final consumers, who are unable to reclaim the VAT which

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