[Info-vax] HP stopping VMS paper documentation ?

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

ChrisQ <meru at devnull.com> wrote:
> On 12/06/11 13:32, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:

>> I think many (most?) US states has "sales tax". I often see on eBay
>> sellers saying that "citicens of <some US-state> pays x% sales tax"...

(snip)
> Insofar as most people don't like having to pay tax at all :-). The problem
> for small business and vat is that a considerable amount of time is taken
> up keeping all the vat returns up to date, purchases in against sales out
> etc, especially if you have the kind of business that handles a lot of low
> value items. You end up being the unpaid tax collector for the government
> and you must also keep up with the rule and exemption changes, which are 
> regular and which is why it's disliked.

The usual US sales tax is only collected by the final retail seller.

That reduces the paperwork overall, concentrating it in one place.

Since there are a variety of taxing methods (income, property, estate,
sales, license) the sales tax is not usually higher than 10%, and
often much lower.  Sales tax is a regressive tax (hits poor people
harder, proportionately).  Some states have no sales tax, others
have no income tax.

If someone buys something for resale, and have the appropriate
resale permit, then they don't pay sales tax on things they
buy, collect all the tax on the final sale, and send that to 
the appropriate taxing agency.

As I understand VAT, the distributed (through the chain of sales)
method means that there is less incentive for any individual to
cheat, and if one does the loss isn't as big.  The sales tax
system requires a more concentrated enforcement system.

The penalties for cheaters have to be high enough in either
case to discourage those who might cheat.

-- glen