Italy's sales tax to rise from 20% to 21%!

[CathyA]

Just read an article about how Italy is trying to deal with their deficit. I couldn't believe that their sales tax is so high!

[razz]

It has a large economy as well but the indebtedness is high as well. I wonder when it first rose so high?

[ApatheticNoMore]

VAT or sales tax? I'd look at the overall tax burden rather than any particular tax (granted sales type taxes tend to be regressive) and I'd look at what they are getting for thier taxes.

[Dharma Bum]

You ought to look at the compliance rate too.

[Kevin]

Most VAT rates in Europe are around that. Ours is 20%, increased from 17.5% (and before that the previous Labour government reduced it to 15% to boost retail sales immediately after the banks crashed the economy; ironically it was the current Conservative government that raised it to 20%*). Even the economic miracle country, Germany, has VAT at 19%.

VAT is sales tax, so it is levied by the retailer at the point of sale. Bear in mind that there is no VAT on many foods, children's clothes and shoes, books and newspapers. There is a lower rate of 5% on domestic heating fuels.

http://www.scopulus.co.uk/taxsheets/european_vat_rates.htm

Kevin

* Actually it's not ironic at all. That's exactly what you would expect a Conservative government to do, because it's a regressive tax that hits the poor hardest

[mira]

Yes, it is a fairly normal amount in Europe. It's on par with Ireland's VAT rate, apparently.

In the UK, they actually lowered the VAT for a short while to 15% a few years ago in order to encourage people to spend.

I found this little list which might give some perspective
http://www.uscib.org/index.asp?documentID=1676

On a slightly unrelated note, it always annoys me that in many US states, you have to manually add on the sales tax to your purchase! Just include it already!

[jp1]

On a slightly unrelated note, it always annoys me that in many US states, you have to manually add on the sales tax to your purchase! Just include it already!

I'm assuming that you mean that the items don't have the tax included in the price and then at the register they are totalled up and then the tax is added on? Yes, that's standard here except in some convenience stores. Personally I prefer it this way because it reminds people, including myself, just how much tax I'm paying every time I buy something.

[mira]

^ Yes, that's what I mean. I guess I'm just used to looking at the price on an item and knowing that that's exactly what I'm being asked to pay!