That is how it works in The Netherlands as well.

What is also great: all products targeted at consumers must contain VAT price. If it isn't mentioned, it is assumed it includes VAT. They don't get away with "oh sorry, forgot to mention VAT" at checkout.

Contrast that to every time I buy something from USA its like "oh, you gotta pay your duties" bwam extra ~20+% on price, and all prices in online discussions which are US-centric (e.g. comparisons on products such as recently Airpods Max) do not include tax (whatever you want to call it).

Different VAT throughout EU can be annoying though. Price comparisons within EU, for example. Regularly, Amazon Germany seems cheap or cheaper than Amazon Netherlands. With Prime, shipping is free either way, so sounds good, right? Until you go to checkout, they figure you really do want to ship to The Netherlands (my default and only address whilst logged in, go figure) and bwam price adjusted without being mentioned. Though that might be an Amazon specific issue.

The way it is in US is deliberate - the premise is that you want people to be aware of how much tax they're paying, on the basis that they would be more politically active about taxes if they knew.

There are other countries with sales tax which don't have this cultural quirk, and where prices normally (whether by custom or by law) include the tax.

> What is also great: all products targeted at consumers must contain VAT price.

Took this far through the comments to get there. There’s a lot of competition for “the worst thing about America”, but it tops my personal list.

(Also @int_19h)

The mandatory tipping culture is another one. If it is mandatory, add it in the price. Tips should be earned. At least in Europe I know what to expect upfront.

The imperial system is another. Makes it unnecessary difficult to convert units.

Its difficult to change such illogical customs though. They're deeply ingrained in the culture, which is in many ways a dominant culture.

Mm, that’s interesting, because as annoyed as I am about sales tax, I find myself not at all annoyed about the 10% automatically added to my bill for service in the UK or 7% in Thailand.

No, you must pay VAT on intra-EU B2B transactions too. The accounting is more complicated because the buyer pays rather than the seller, but it is still there.

Yeah, the accounting is there, but not the actual transfer. I.e. you're not transferring the actual money to France, which the French finance ministry would then have to send back to the German one once it got it from the French company (in order for the German one to give it back to the company buying the product).

And the accounting is there because of tax fraud, I guess. And I also guess that the US has a similar accounting system where they have to report the amount purchased per tax bracket and the IDs of the companies they bought from.

You don't pay VAT on intra-EU B2B transactions; the buyer adds the VAT amount at their country's rate to both the amount to pay and the amount to claim back, cancelling it out.

The reverse charge is still VAT being paid, just differently.

How so if the net liability change is nil? No extra money comes out of your account, it's just a paper charge that cancels itself.

If I have misinterpreted it, I would very much like to know so I can inform my accountant. VAT is enough of a hairy mess as it is.

This, reverse charge.