Gilbert E. Metcalf

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
 
 
 
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS 
 
WORKING PAPER 
 
2006 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Department of Economics 
Tufts University 
Medford, MA 02155 
(617) 627–3560 
http://ase.tufts.edu/econ  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Value-Added Tax 
 
 
 
 
Gilbert E. Metcalf 
Department of Economics 
Tufts University 
and NBER 
 
 
March 2006 
 
 
  1Value-Added Tax 
 
A value-added tax (VAT) is a tax on the value created in a good or service by a business 
in any stage of production, distribution, or sales.   
 
Definitions and Equivalencies 
 
  Value added is simply the difference between the value of the goods and services 
sold and the value of goods and services purchased as intermediate inputs.  Consider the 
general cash flow equation for a firm.   
 
(1)    S + K
+ = L + M + K
-
 
The equation states that cash comes into a firm from capital inflows (K
+) –  new equity 
and borrowing –  and proceeds from sales.  Cash is used for payments for labor (L) and 
intermediate goods (M).
1  In addition cash is retained or used for dividend and interest 
payments as well as any retirement of debt and equity (K
-).   
 
  Value added was defined above as the difference between revenue from sales and 
the cost of inputs: 
 
(2)    VA = S – M = L + (K
- - K
+). 
 
Equation (2) demonstrates that there are several ways to impose a VAT.  We 
could tax gross sales net of intermediate input purchases at each stage of production.  
This forms the basis for a "subtraction method" VAT.  Alternatively, we could tax gross 
sales and allow a credit for taxes paid by registered suppliers of intermediate inputs to the 
firm.  The "credit method" VAT works in this fashion.  A third method is to tax the factor 
payments to capital and labor.  This forms the basis for an "addition method" VAT. 
 
  Value-added taxes are common throughout the world with the notable exception 
of the United States.  Most countries use the credit method arguing that this method is 
self-enforcing since the ability to take a credit for VAT paid at an earlier stage of 
production requires suppliers to provide an invoice detailing their VAT payments.   
 
Tax Neutrality 
 
  As described at this most general level, a VAT shares all the attributes of a broad-
based consumption tax.  If comprehensively applied, it is neutral across all forms of 
purchased consumption.  And since capital purchases are expensed (immediately 
                                                 
1 Capital purchases are generally included in M.  This makes a VAT a consumption tax.  If  capital 
depreciation is included in M, then this would be an income-type VAT.  If no capital deduction of any form 
is allowed, then this would be a gross output VAT.  For the remainder of the entry, I will focus on a 
consumption-type VAT. 
  2deducted from the tax base), the rate of return on capital is unaffected by the tax.
 2  In 
practice, VATs are not neutral for a number of reasons.  First, if capital is not expensed, 
returns to capital are affected by the tax.  Most VATs are consumption-type VATs so this 
is not a significant problem.  Second, as noted by Cnossen (1998), some countries extend 
the VAT up through the manufacturing or wholesale stage but not through the retail 
stage.  This creates distortions across consumption given the different ensuing tax rates 
on different commodities.   
 
  Finally, many VATs exempt certain sectors from the tax, "zero-rate" sectors or 
commodities, or apply a reduced rate to certain commodities (e.g. food for home 
preparation).  Zero rating in a credit method VAT means that firms apply a zero rate to 
their tax base but receive a credit for all VAT paid by suppliers.  Zero-rating has no 
impact if applied at an intermediate stage of production since any taxes foregone at one 
stage are made up at the next stage.  Zero-rating at the retail stage means the commodity 
is untaxed by a VAT.  Exempting sectors from the VAT process may create peculiar 
outcomes.  If an intermediate sector is exempted from taxation, downstream stages of 
production will pay a VAT not only on their value added but on the value added created 
in sectors upstream from the exempt sector for which no credit was received.  The result 
is that exemptions at an intermediate stage of production can lead to the effective VAT 
rate being higher than the nominal rate.  For this reason, many countries that exempt 
certain sectors (generally small businesses) allow voluntary participation in the VAT 
system.  Note too that exemptions at the retail stage create incentives for vertical 
integration to increase the proportion of value added exempt from taxation. 
 
Design Issues 
 
  A VAT can be levied on an "origin" or "destination" basis.  An origin VAT taxes 
value added in the country in which the value added is produced while a destination VAT 
taxes value added where it is consumed.  Most countries employ a destination VAT and 
use a border tax adjustment whereby a VAT is applied to the value of imports and rebate 
provided for the value of exports.  While it is popularly believed that border tax 
adjustments favor export industries, a flexible exchange rate in general leads to the same 
trade balance whether the VAT is applied on an origin or destination basis.
3    
 
  Border tax adjustments are commonly applied by customs authorities and this has 
given rise to special problems for the European Union with its abolition of border 
controls in 1992.  Keen and Smith (1996) note conflicts between two important goals: 
maximum autonomy for individual countries to set their own tax rates versus a system of 
country VAT structures that does not impede the creation of a single European market.  
Keen and Smith propose a "Viable Integrated VAT" or VIVAT to address this problem.  
The VIVAT applies a harmonized VAT rate to intermediate producers in all European 
countries and a different rate for final consumption sales.  The rate on final sales would 
vary across countries based on individual country preferences.  The VIVAT can be 
                                                 
2 As with all consumption taxes, the efficiency gains from a switch from income to consumption taxation 
depend significantly on the tax treatment of old capital.  On this point, see Auerbach and Kotlikoff (1987). 
3  Grossman (1980) demonstrates that this proposition fails in a world with trade in intermediate goods. 
  3thought of as a harmonized EU wide VAT and a system of individual country retail sales 
taxes, a point that reminds us of the close connection between a VAT and a retail sales 
tax. 
 
  McLure (2000) notes that the VIVAT requires firms to charge different rates to 
different classes of customers, a non-trivial burden.  He also notes that a destination 
based system of VATs in a sub-national system can give rise to tax evasion by 
households or unregistered firms importing goods (which are zero rated at the exporting 
country's border).  McLure proposes a Compensating VAT (CVAT), essentially an 
additional federal level tax to guarantee the tax revenues that might otherwise be lost to 
cross-border tax evasion.  The key point here is that considerable administrative 
complexity comes into play when a VAT is implemented by a group of countries (or 
states) within a common trading system (or federal government).    
 
  As with any other consumption tax framework, taxing housing and financial 
services is problematic with a VAT.  One approach for treating housing services follows 
from an arbitrage argument that the present value of the stream of future consumption 
services from housing is equal to its purchase price.  With this assumption, a tax-
prepayment approach levies the VAT on the first sale of a house (but not subsequent 
sales) as well as additions or maintenance.  With constant tax rates, this tax payment is 
equal to the present value of the taxes that would be paid on the housing services enjoyed 
by occupants of the house.
4   Alternatively, the sale of all residential housing and rental 
income are subject to tax while the purchase of residential housing is deductible.  This 
approach treats housing like any other capital asset which produces services (housing).  
Measuring and taxing the imputed rental income on owner occupied housing is a 
significant problem for this approach.  For this reason, most consumption taxes favor the 
tax prepayment approach. 
 
  Financial services are even more difficult to handle under consumption taxes.  
One approach is to tax the net cash flow from financial services.  In the terminology of 
Meade (1978), this would be an R+F (real plus financial) consumption tax.  As Auerbach 
and Gordon (2002) point out, this creates considerable administrative problems since 
other transactions are treated on an R basis, thus giving rise to arbitrage opportunities to 
avoid the tax.  In the European Union financial services are exempt from VAT though 
Huizanga (2002) has argued that it is increasingly feasible to bring this sector into the 
VAT system.  This sanguine perspective is not shared by all economists. 
 
Tax Incidence and Impacts on Saving and Labor Supply 
 
  Because a VAT in its purest form is a consumption tax, its distributional impact 
as well as behavioral impacts are the same as those of any broad-based consumption tax.  
To the extent that the VAT is implemented in non-neutral ways (exemptions and zero 
rating of sectors, multiple tax rates, etc.) consumption distortions will arise similar to 
those of any differential rate commodity tax system.  
                                                 
4  If tax rates rise (fall) in the future, the tax prepayment approach raises less (more) revenue than if the 
housing services were taxed directly.   
  4 
  Many countries apply a VAT tax structure with lower rates on perceived 
necessities (food, for example) on distributional grounds.  Most economic analyses of 
VAT proposals recommend a uniform tax rate on all commodities to avoid consumption 
distortions and recommend using an income tax to effect desired income redistribution.
5   
While reducing tax rates on food and other necessities provides benefits to low-income 
households, this is a blunt instrument for redistribution given the resulting reduction in 
taxes to wealthy people's purchase of food (and other low or zero rated commodities). 
 
 
Gilbert E. Metcalf 
Tufts University 
 
Cross-Referencing 
 
Consumption taxation 
Fiscal federalism 
Optimal taxation 
Tax reform 
 
 
Bibliography 
 
Auerbach, A.J. and Gordon, R.H. 2002. Taxation of Financial Services under a Vat. 
American Economic Review 92, 411-16. 
 
Auerbach, A.J. and Kotlikoff, L.J. 1987. Dynamic Fiscal Policy. New York: Cambridge 
University Press. 
 
Cnossen, S. 1998. Global Trends and Issues in Value Added Taxation. International Tax 
and Public Finance 5, 399-428. 
 
Grossman, G. 1980. Border Tax Adjustments: Do They Distort Trade? Journal of 
International Economics 10, 117-28. 
 
Huizanga, H. 2002. A European Vat on Financial Services? Economic Policy 35, 499-
534. 
 
Keen, M. and Smith, S. 1996. The Future of Value-Added Tax in the European Union. 
Economic Policy 23, 375-420. 
 
McLure, C. 2000. Implementing Subnational Value Added Taxes on Internal Trade: The 
Compensating Vat (CVAT). International Tax and Public Finance 7, 723-40. 
 
                                                 
5 Cnossen (1998) recommends a dual rate system for developing countries on the grounds that income taxes 
are administratively unfeasible in these countries. 
  5Meade, J.E. 1978. The Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation. London: Allen & 
Unwin. 
 
  6 
 
 
WORKING PAPER SERIES 2006 
http://ase.tufts.edu/econ/papers/papers.html 
 
2006-01  IOANNIDES, Yannis and Adriaan SOETEVENT; “Wages and 
Employment in a Random Social Network with Arbitrary Degree 
Distribution.” 
2006-02  DAGEN, Richard and Daniel RICHARDS; “Merger Theory and 
Evidence: The Baby-Food Case Reconsidered.” 
2006-03  PEPALL, Lynne, Daniel RICHARDS, John STRAUB and Michael 
DEBARTOLO; “Competition and Civic Engagement in the 
Religious Marketplace.” 
2006-04  LOURY, Linda; “Job Search Among Informal Contacts.” 
2006-05  BIR, Anupa and Karen EGGLESTON; “Measuring Selection 
Incentives in Managed Care: Evidence from the Massachusetts 
State Employee Insurance Program.” 
2006-06  PEPALL, Lynne, Daniel RICHARDS and Liang TAN; 
“Advertising: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” 
2006-07  METCALF, Gilbert E.; “Tax Incidence.” 
2006-08  METCALF, Gilbert E.; “Value-Added Tax.” 
2006-09  METCALF, Gilbert E.; “Energy Conservation in the United States: 
Understanding its Role in Climate Policy.” 
2006-10  LOURY, Linda; “All in the Extended Family: Grandparents, 
Aunts, and Uncles and Educational Attainment.” 
2006-11  IOANNIDES, Yannis; “Empirics of Social Interactions.” 

A European Vat on Financial Services?

Border Tax Adjustments: Do They Distort Trade?

Dynamic Fiscal Policy. New York:

Global Trends and Issues in Value Added Taxation.

Implementing Subnational Value Added Taxes on Internal Trade: The Compensating Vat (CVAT).

recommends a dual rate system for developing countries on the grounds that income taxes are administratively unfeasible in these countries.

Taxation of Financial Services under a Vat.

The Future of Value-Added Tax in the European Union.

The Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation.

Wages and Employment in a Random Social Network with Arbitrary Degree Distribution.”

Value-Added Tax

http://ase.tufts.edu/econ/papers/200608.pdf

Value-Added Tax

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Research Papers in Economics