re national sales tax the movie in article c m f geb news iastate edu atboyken iastate edu aaron t boyken writes if the vat will be done in the same way that state and local sales taxes are done nothing will be on the sticker the cleark ringing up your purchase gum gas car etc will hit a button to add another on top of the state and local sales taxes and that won t include any of the vat from previous levels of sales there is no need to include the vat from previous levels because the vat is a difference tax if the vat is x than the amount of tax the government receives through all the levels is x of the purchase price of the end consumer at the intervening levels only the difference between the vat paid out and the vat received is remitted to the government here s a question what if instead of a true vat the federal government imposed a sales tax of say the tax would only be paid on retail sales thus not building up at all levels of production costs that are just passed on to consumers anyway and would only go to reducing the deficit i know that this would never happen but it seems a lot more palettable than a vat a vat is infinitely preferable to a retail sails tax gerald
