Bruce,
I got to disagree with you there. It was Purchase Tax that was originally supposed to be a tax on luxury goods and got extended to everything. VAT was always intended to be on all goods and services which "added value" -- Canadians have their version known as GST (Goods and Services Tax) and all (?) US states have a sales tax. But noone in the civilized world gets ripped off at the 17.5% rate that the Brits do. But the Brits will put up with anything and pride themselves on their stoicism.
Hugh Thornton in UK but not totally British
>From: "brucerobbins" <brucerobbins@supanet.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]Re: VAT and new marketing techniques
>Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 21:19:36 -0000
>
>Baron,
>
>VAT is a UK tax not payable outwith our sceptred isle. It stands for Value
>Added Tax and was supposed to be a levy on luxury goods. As usual, it was
>gradually extended to cover just about everything apart from children's
>clothing and newspapers/books.
>
>Love the four for $5 marketing ploy, by the way. Spill the beans-who were
>the numpties who went for that one!
>
>Bruce
>Ten miles from sunny Dundee, 56.28N, 3.00W, up a bit from Edinburgh and to
>the right.
>
>P.S. Apologies if someone has already pointed the VAT thing out. I
>accidently deleted a couple of digests.