While theoretically the amount of revenue collected through VAT is equivalent to sales tax collections at a similar rate, in practice VAT is likely to generate more revenue for government than sales tax since it is administered on various stages on the production — distribution chain. With sales tax, if final sales are not covered by the tax system e.g. due to difficulty of covering all the retailers, particular commodities may not yield any tax. However, with VAT some revenue would have been collected through taxation of earlier transactions, even if final retailers evade the tax net.
There is also in-built pressure for compliance and auditing under VAT since it will be in the interest of all who pay taxes to ensure that their eligibility for tax credits can be demonstrated.… Read the rest