The Value Added Tax and Developing Countries

The comprehensive value added tax (VAT), now a principal source of revenue for some forty countries, was nowhere to be found only thirty years ago. This article analyzes the reasons for this dramatic change and weighs the advantages and disadvantages of the VAT for developing countries. It points out the choices a government instituting a VAT must make with respoect to taxing all final products or only consumer goods, and it offers suggestions on how to treat exports and imports, how to compute the VAT payable, whether to use "exemption" or "zero-rating" approaches, and whether to have one or various tax rates. For countries with a fragmented retail trade the VAT may apply only to wholesale and earlier stages. The article draws no general conclusions on the suitability of the VAT for developing coutnries, because these countries differ so widely.