---- Original Message ----- From: "John R Levine" <johnl@xxxxxxxxx> To: "Yoav Nir" <ynir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <ietf@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2013 10:47 PM Subject: Re: Speaking of VAT > > Ray said the tax guys told him the IETF would get back about half of the > VAT it paid. That's unrelated to what anyone can reclaim. > > My understanding is that Germany has reciprocal VAT agreements with a > bunch of countries so if your employer is in one of those countries it may > be able to reclaim, but since the US isn't one of them I haven't looked in > detail. John VAT is a European Union tax that all member states are required to levy on the supply of goods and services, although there is flexibility about the rate it is levied at and what it is levied on. As a VAT-registered business, mandatory when turnover exceeds a threshold, I tot up the VAT I have charged and the VAT I have paid and the difference goes to (or comes back from) the tax authorities. This applies across the European Union so there is no problem about where the VAT is paid - any European Union country will do - and equally, VAT must be charged whereever a supply is made. There is no requirement to charge VAT on the export of goods outside the European Union - technically, they are zero-rated - but in general, it must be charged on the export of services. The exemption on the export of goods has generated a lot of fraud in the past few years, especially on high value goods such as computer chips, and so has attracted the attention of the tax authorities. Only businesses can reclaim the tax - private individuals cannot. VAT as implemented in the European Union is an administrative and bureaucratic nightmare, generating work for armies of lawyers, accountants and administrators. I would be wary of extrapolating any aspect of European VAT to taxes of the same name in other parts of the world (smile - things could be worse:-). The European Union's VAT was the first, I think. Tom Petch > R's, > John >