Goods and Services Tax

A value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution, typically implemented as a destination-based tax where the tax rate is based on the location of the customer. The modern concept of VAT was first implemented by Maurice Lauré in France's Ivory Coast colony in 1954, and it has since been adopted by over 160 countries worldwide, including all members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) except the United States. VAT is an indirect tax, where the consumer who ultimately bears the burden of the tax is not the entity that pays it, and it provides an incentive for businesses to register and keep invoices, making it difficult to evade.learn more on wikipedia