BrianH wrote in news:829ed$47db6af5$5449e348$1574
@news.hispeed.ch:

Each registered business does indeed pay VAT on its stage of
a product's path to final sale to the consumer but each
business is able to claim that payment back once it leaves
for the next stage, so in practice no payment is made.
Therefore, that payment is not reflected in the product's
cost of production, only the consumer pays the final VAT,
making it similar to a normal sales tax.


I learn something new every day. This is today's discovery. I didn't know
they get it back. I assumed, wrongly it seems, that it was accumulated.

It certainly wouldn't be given back in the United States of America. We'd
invent a new layer of local government bureaucrats who would live quite
well upon each layer of kept VAT, here.

Does VAT work that way in every European country, or just Switzerland?