I've written recently about increasing the rewards of creators who add value to something and reducing the amount of those that bring the value to the table yet create nothing.
With that thought in mind I had to scratch my head as to how the acronym VAT came to be.
On a recent trip to Europe to help spread the word about high-end audio and PS, I was reminded by quite a few customers I met that everything they purchase in most countries in Europe and the UK have an extra 20% tacked onto the cost of the goods. The tax is called VAT which stands for Value Added Tax.
Really? What value is this tax adding to the product?
OK, as a side note I understand this is a tax on the added "value" of goods in a complex formula and is not too different than our "sales tax" in this country - ours averages about 1/2 of VAT - but at least we call it a sales tax. I am just laughing at their nomenclature.
Value tax?
