This book integrates legal, economic, and administrative materials about the value added tax to present the only comparative study of VAT law.

Alan Schenk is a distinguished professor at Wayne State University Law School. He has taught VAT at other universities in the United States and abroad. Schenk is the author of numerous articles and of several books on value added tax and goods and services tax, in addition to the first edition of this book, which was co-authored with the late Oliver Oldman. For the past eighteen years, he served as a technical advisor for the IMF's legal department, drafting VAT laws and regulations. He has consulted for foreign governments, testified before the US Congress, and served as an expert in arbitrations involving VAT.

1. Introduction; 2. Forms of consumption-based taxes and altering the tax base; 3. Varieties of VAT in use; 4. Registration, taxpayer, and taxable business activity; 5. Taxable supplies of goods and services and tax invoices; 6. The tax credit mechanism; 7. Introduction to cross-border aspects of VAT; 8. Timing and valuation rules; 9. Zero rating and exemptions and government entities and nonprofit organizations; 10. VAT evasion and avoidance; 11. Gambling and financial services (other than insurance); 12. Insurance; 13. Real property; 14. An anatomy of China's VAT; 15. Interjurisdictional aspects of VAT in federal countries and common markets.