Theft of VAT

I have noted the series of letters for and against enforcing the collection of VAT and comments by ordinary people who have no idea how a business is run.

As an entrepreneur who deals only with companies - I collect VAT and pay it to the department while my customers who pay me the VAT reclaim it from the department - I have to set the record straight.

While accepting the fact that there are some unscrupulous businessmen who collect VAT and use it for their own ends, such as financing their own luxuries (and then are unable to pay it back), I am also sure that they dispose even of the money they owe to their own suppliers in this manner.

Sometimes businesses do not pay us the VAT due and we have to pay it for them out of our own pockets. They even claim back from the department the VAT that they themselves have not paid to their suppliers. Sometimes months pass, if not years, before the VAT paid in these cases is recovered from these unscrupulous people. The department would still expect it to be paid on time, and some businesses are in this way brought to their knees.

The problem is always the retailer who sells to end customers and collects VAT from them. It is these people who should be spared no mercy. To add insult to injury, when these retailers do not issue a fiscal receipt they are stealing from the supplier and the VAT department together. They are charging people VAT and instead of paying it to the government, they are keeping it for themselves.

So when you make a purchase next time, make sure that you are given your receipt. In so doing, it is not to the government that you are doing a favour, because if the government does not collect enough taxes it will simply increase them. And who will then have to pay? Us! If we help the VAT department collect its dues by making sure we get our receipt, the government will need to tax us less than it is doing.

While there are businesses that issue a receipt for the smallest purchase, there are others who do not - and these are a majority. I think that if the government were to enforce these regulations properly, it will not need to tax the honest citizen so much.