question: what is the difference between Sales taxes vs Vat?
comment: A sales tax is only collected at final sale to a consumer. Vat is applied every time something exchanges hands. So for example lets look at a bottle of wine. In the sales tax system only the bottles final sale is taxed but in a VAT system the sand that goes to the glass maker is taxed, the empty bottle is taxed when it goes to the vinyard, the wine is taxed when it goes to the store, and then it is taxed one final time when you buy it. If the VAT system rates are low enough there will not be much difference in the final price, but there is potential for massive price inflation very quickly because you keep charging tax as you go.
passages: In the United States, currently, there is no federal value-added tax (VAT) on goods or services. Instead, a sales and use tax is used in most US states. VATs have been the subject of much scholarship in the US and are one of the most contentious tax policy topics.
   Section::::Registration.
  
  In general, countries that have a VAT system require most businesses to be registered for VAT purposes. VAT registered businesses can be natural persons or legal entities, but countries may have different thresholds or regulations specifying at which turnover levels registration becomes compulsory. VAT-registered businesses are required to add VAT on goods and services that they supply to others (with some exceptions, which vary by country) and account for the VAT to the taxing authority, after deducting the VAT that they paid on the goods and services they acquired from other VAT-registered businesses.
  
  Section::::Comparison with income tax.
   A large exception to this state of affairs is online sales. Typically if the online retail firm has no nexus (also known as substantial physical presence) in the state where the merchandise will be delivered, no obligation is imposed upon the retailer to collect sales taxes from "out-of-state" purchasers. Generally, state law requires that the purchaser report such purchases to the state taxing authority and pay the use tax, which compensates for the sales tax that is not paid by the retailer.
  
  Section::::Examples.:With a value-added tax.
  
  With a 10% VAT:
   This kind of fraud originated in the 1970s in the Benelux countries. Today, VAT fraud is a major problem in the UK. There are also similar fraud possibilities inside a country. To avoid this, in some countries like Sweden, the major owner of a limited company is personally responsible for taxes.
  
  Under a sales tax system, only businesses selling to the end-user are required to collect tax and bear the accounting cost of collecting the tax. Under VAT, manufacturers and wholesale companies also incur accounting expenses to handle the additional paperwork required for collecting VAT, increasing overhead costs and prices.
   A value added tax (VAT), also known as Goods and Services Tax (G.S.T), Single Business Tax, or Turnover Tax in some countries, applies the equivalent of a sales tax to every operation that creates value. To give an example, sheet steel is imported by a machine manufacturer. That manufacturer will pay the VAT on the purchase price, remitting that amount to the government. The manufacturer will then transform the steel into a machine, selling the machine for a higher price to a wholesale distributor. The manufacturer will collect the VAT on the higher price, but will remit to the government only the excess related to the "value added" (the price over the cost of the sheet steel). The wholesale distributor will then continue the process, charging the retail distributor the VAT on the entire price to the retailer, but remitting only the amount related to the distribution mark-up to the government. The last VAT amount is paid by the eventual retail customer who cannot recover any of the previously paid VAT. For a VAT and sales tax of identical rates, the total tax paid is the same, but it is paid at differing points in the process.
   Like an income tax, VAT is based on the increase in value of a product or service at each stage of production or distribution. However, there are some important differences:
  
  BULLET::::- A VAT is usually collected by the end retailer. Therefore, even though VAT is actually incurred by all stages of production and distribution, it is frequently compared to a sales tax.
  
  BULLET::::- A VAT is usually a flat tax.
   VAT is usually administrated by requiring the company to complete a VAT return, giving details of VAT it has been charged (referred to as input tax) and VAT it has charged to others (referred to as output tax). The difference between output tax and input tax is payable to the Local Tax Authority.
  
  Many tax authorities have introduced automated VAT which has increased accountability and auditability, by utilizing computer-systems, thereby also enabling anti-cybercrime offices as well.
  
  Section::::Types.:Goods and services.:Sales.
   In theory, sales tax is normally charged on end users (consumers). The VAT mechanism means that the end-user tax is the same as it would be with a sales tax. The main disadvantage of VAT is the extra accounting required by those in the middle of the supply chain; this is balanced by the simplicity of not requiring a set of rules to determine who is and is not considered an end user. When the VAT system has few, if any, exemptions such as with GST in New Zealand, payment of VAT is even simpler.
   In the VAT example above, the consumer has paid, and the government received, the same dollar amount as with a sales tax. At each stage of the production, the seller collects a tax on behalf of the government and the buyer pays for the tax by paying a higher price. The buyer can then be reimbursed for paying the tax, but only by successfully selling the value-added product to the buyer or consumer in the next stage. In the previously shown examples, if the retailer fails to sell some of its inventory, then it suffers a greater financial loss in the VAT scheme in comparison to the sales tax regulatory system by having paid a higher price on the product it wants to sell. Each business is responsible for handling the necessary paperwork in order to pass on to the government the VAT it collected on its gross margin. The businesses are freed from any obligation to request certifications from purchasers who are not end users, and of providing such certifications to their suppliers, but they incur increased accounting costs for collecting the tax, which are not reimbursed by the taxing authority. For example, wholesale companies now have to hire staff and accountants to handle the VAT paperwork, which would not be required if they were collecting sales tax instead.
   The US has no broad-based consumption tax at the federal level, and no state currently collects VAT; the overwhelming majority of states instead collect sales taxes. Canada uses both a VAT at the federal level (the Goods and Services Tax) and sales taxes at the provincial level; some provinces have a single tax combining both forms.
   Value-added tax
  
  A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. Like an income tax, it is based on the increase in value of a product or service at each stage of production or distribution. However, a VAT is collected by the end retailer and is usually a flat tax, and is therefore frequently compared to a sales tax.
   Business which make more than £60,000 have to register for a VAT number they also need to charge their customers VAT, you also need to fill in the relevant VAT returns and send VAT payments to HM Revenue & Customs. VAT is paid on its purchases this is called input tax they also charge tax on sales this is called output tax; if a business gains more output tax from what it pays in input then it must pay the difference, if the business receives more input than output then HMRC will pay the difference. Generally the VAT is charged at 17.5% however many products and services may receive lower VAT or may be except.
   Certain goods and services are exempt from VAT, and others are subject to VAT at a lower rate of 5 percent (the reduced rate, such as domestic gas supplies) or 0 percent ("zero-rated", such as most food and children's clothing). Exemptions are intended to relieve the tax burden on essentials while placing the full tax on luxuries, but disputes based on fine distinctions arise, such as the notorious "Jaffa Cake Case" which hinged on whether Jaffa Cakes were classed as (zero-rated) cakes—as was eventually decided—or (fully taxed) chocolate-covered biscuits. Until 2001, VAT was charged at the full rate on unused sanitary towels.
   Being a consumption tax, VAT is usually used as a replacement for sales tax. Ultimately, it taxes the same people and businesses the same amounts of money, despite its internal mechanism being different. There is a significant difference between VAT and Sales Tax for goods that are imported and exported:
  
  BULLET::::1. VAT is charged for a commodity that is exported while sales tax is not.
  
  BULLET::::2. Sales tax is paid for the full price of the imported commodity, while VAT is expected to be charged only for value added to this commodity by the importer and the reseller.
   Section::::Exemption from VAT.
  
  There is a distinction between goods and services that are exempt from VAT and those that are subject to 0% VAT. The seller of exempt goods is not entitled to reclaim VAT on business purchases, whereas the seller of goods and services rated at 0% is entitled. An example would be a book manufacturer in Ireland, who purchases paper including VAT at the 23% rate, and sells books at the 0% rate; the manufacturer would be entitled to reclaim the VAT paid on the paper as the business is making taxable supplies.
   VAT is levied on most goods and services provided by registered businesses in the UK and some goods and services imported from outside the European Union. There are complex regulations for goods and services imported from "within" the EU. The default VAT rate is the standard rate, 20% since 4 January 2011. Some goods and services are subject to VAT at a reduced rate of 5% (such as domestic fuel) or 0% (such as most food and children's clothing). Others are exempt from VAT or outside the system altogether.
   Registered businesses must pay over to HMRC the VAT they have charged on their goods or service (known as output tax) but they may offset this with the VAT they have incurred on goods or services they have purchased that relates to their own onward 'taxable' supplies (known as input tax). VAT incurred by businesses that does not relate to their onward making of taxable supplies (whether exempt or from 'non-business' activities) may not be offset from the amount of VAT that is payable to HMRC.
   Value-added tax avoids the cascade effect of sales tax by taxing only the value added at each stage of production. For this reason, throughout the world, VAT has been gaining favor over traditional sales taxes. In principle, VAT applies to all provisions of goods and services. VAT is assessed and collected on the value of goods or services that have been provided every time there is a transaction (sale/purchase). The seller charges VAT to the buyer, and the seller pays this VAT to the government. If, however, the purchasers are not the end users, but the goods or services purchased are costs to their business, the tax they have paid for such purchases can be deducted from the tax they charge to their customers. The government only receives the difference; in other words, it is paid tax on the gross margin of each transaction, by each participant in the sales chain.
   Most countries in the world have sales taxes or value-added taxes at all or several of the national, state, county, or city government levels. Countries in Western Europe, especially in Scandinavia, have some of the world's highest valued-added taxes. Norway, Denmark and Sweden have higher VATs at 25%, Hungary has the highest at 27% although reduced rates are used in some cases, as for groceries, art, books and newspapers.
   VAT that is charged by a business and paid by its customers is known as "output" VAT (that is, VAT on its output supplies). VAT that is paid by a business to other businesses on the supplies that it receives is known as "input" VAT (that is, VAT on its input supplies). A business is generally able to recover input VAT to the extent that the input VAT is attributable to (that is, used to make) its taxable outputs. Input VAT is recovered by setting it against the output VAT for which the business is required to account to the government, or, if there is an excess, by claiming a repayment from the government.
   Most states also exempt bulk sales, such as sales of an entire business. Most states exempt from sales tax goods purchased for use as ingredients or parts in further manufacturing. Buyers in exempt sales must follow certain procedures or face tax.
  
  Sales to businesses and to consumers are generally taxed the same, except as noted in the preceding paragraph. Businesses receive no offset to sales tax collection and payment obligations for their own purchases. This differs significantly from value added taxes.
   A 2017 study found that the adoption of VAT is strongly linked to countries with corporatist institutions.
  
  Section::::Overview.
  
  The amount of VAT is decided by the state as percentage of the end-market price. As its name suggests, value-added tax is designed to tax only the value added by a business on top of the services and goods it can purchase from the market.
   VAT essentially compensates for the shared services and infrastructure provided in a certain locality by a state and funded by its taxpayers that were used in the elaboration of that product or service. Not all localities require VAT to be charged and goods and services for export may be exempted (duty free). VAT is usually implemented as a destination-based tax, where the tax rate is based on the location of the consumer and applied to the sales price. Confusingly, the terms VAT, GST, consumption tax and sales tax are sometimes used interchangeably. VAT raises about a fifth of total tax revenues both worldwide and among the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As of 2018, 166 of the 193 countries with full UN membership employ a VAT, including all OECD members except the United States, which uses a sales tax system instead.
   Some countries charge a value added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST) that extends to retail purchases. When those customers are residents of a US state having sales taxes on such goods, the VAT or GST taxes paid might be used as a credit against the amount of use tax otherwise owed, unless excluded, such as in Massachusetts. However, when a post-travel refund of the VAT or GST is claimed, the purchaser's home taxing jurisdiction can then assert a claim for the full sales tax liability.
   To understand what this means, consider a production process (e.g., take-away coffee starting from coffee beans) where products get successively more valuable at each stage of the process. When an end-consumer makes a purchase, they are not only paying for the VAT for the product at hand (e.g., a cup of coffee), but in effect, the VAT for the entire production process (e.g., the purchase of the coffee beans, their transportation, processing, cultivation, etc.), since VAT is always included in the prices.
  