Putting the 'Value Added' in China's VAT

Abstract

Value added tax is a consumption tax imposed on the value added during the production and distribution chain. It is the most common form of domestic household consumption tax and has been adopted in over 135 countries, including all the OECD jurisdictions except for the United States (which has state-based retail sales taxes). The European Union, where the VAT was invented, has the longest experience with it. The People’s Republic of China introduced the VAT to its tax regime in the early stages of its economic open door reform, and the VAT system has been recently reformed by the government.