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Value-added tax〔http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/value-added-tax〕 or value added tax〔http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/value-added-tax?q=value+added+tax〕 (VAT) is a consumption tax levied in the United Kingdom by the national government. It was introduced in 1973 and is the third largest source of government revenue after income tax and National Insurance. It is administered and collected by HM Revenue and Customs, primarily through the Value Added Tax Act 1994. VAT is levied on most goods and services provided by registered businesses in the UK and some goods and services imported from outside the European Union.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/introduction.htm )〕 There are complex regulations for goods and services imported from ''within'' the EU. The default VAT rate is the standard rate, 20% since 4 January 2011. Some goods and services are subject to VAT at a reduced rate of 5% (such as domestic fuel) or 0% (such as most food and children's clothing).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The UK’s VAT Rate Explained )〕 Others are exempt from VAT or outside the system altogether. Under EU law, the standard rate of VAT in any EU state cannot be lower than 15%.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/rates/index_en.htm )〕 Each state may have up to two reduced rates of at least 5% for a restricted list of goods and services.〔 The European Council must approve any temporary reduction of VAT in the public interest.〔 VAT is an indirect tax because the tax is paid to the government by the seller (the business) rather than the person who ultimately bears the economic burden of the tax (the consumer).〔 Opponents of VAT claim it is a regressive tax because the poorest people spend a higher proportion of their disposable income on VAT than the richest people. Those in favour of VAT claim it is progressive as consumers who spend more pay more VAT.〔 ==History== Between October 1940 and 1973 the UK had a consumption tax called Purchase Tax, which was levied at different rates depending on goods' luxuriousness.〔 Purchase Tax was applied to the wholesale price, initially at a rate of 33%. This was doubled in April 1942 to 66%, and further increased in April 1943 to a rate of 100%, before reverting in April 1946 to 33% again. Unlike VAT, Purchase Tax was applied at the point of manufacture and distribution, not at the point of sale. The rate of Purchase Tax at the start of 1973, when it gave way to VAT, was 25%. On 1 January 1973 the UK joined the European Economic Community and as a consequence Purchase Tax was replaced by Value Added Tax on 1 April 1973.〔 The Conservative Chancellor Lord Barber set a single VAT rate (10%) on most goods and services.〔〔〔 In July 1974, Labour Chancellor Denis Healey reduced the standard rate of VAT from 10% to 8% but introduced a new higher rate of 12.5% for petrol and some luxury goods.〔〔 In November 1974, Healey doubled the higher rate of VAT to 25%.〔 Healey reduced the higher rate back to 12.5% in April 1976.〔〔 Conservative Chancellor Geoffrey Howe increased the standard rate of VAT from 8% to 15% and abolished the higher rate in June 1979.〔〔 The rate remained unchanged until 1991, when Conservative Chancellor Norman Lamont increased it from 15% to 17.5%.〔〔〔 The additional revenue was used to pay for a reduction in the hugely unpopular community charge.〔 During the 1992 general election the Conservatives promised not to extend the scope of VAT but in March 1993, Lamont announced that domestic fuel and power, which had previously been zero-rated, would have VAT levied at 8% from April 1994 and the full 17.5% from April 1995.〔 The planned introduction of VAT on domestic fuel and power went ahead in April 1994, but the increase from 8% to 17.5% in April 1995 was scuppered in December 1994, after the government lost the vote in parliament.〔〔 In its 1997 general election manifesto, the Labour Party pledged to reduce VAT on domestic fuel and power to 5%. After gaining power, the new Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in June 1997 that the lower rate of VAT on domestic fuel and power would be reduced from 8% to 5% with effect from 1 September 1997. In November 1997, Brown announced that the VAT on installation of energy saving materials would be reduced from 17.5% to 5% from 1 July 1998. Brown subsequently reduced VAT from 17.5% to 5% on sanitary protection products (from 1 January 2001); children's car seats (from 1 April 2001); conversion and renovation of certain residential properties (from 12 May 2001); contraceptives (from 1 July 2006); and smoking cessation products (from 1 July 2007). In response to the late-2000s recession, Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in November 2008 that the standard rate of VAT would be reduced from 17.5% to 15% with effect from 1 December 2008. In December 2009, Darling announced that the standard rate of VAT would return to 17.5% with effect from 1 January 2010. In the run up to the 2010 general election there were reports that the Conservatives would raise VAT if they gained power. The party denied the reports. Following the election in May 2010, the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. In the 2010 budget, described by PM David Cameron as an "emergency budget", Chancellor George Osborne announced that the standard rate of VAT would increase from 17.5% to 20% with effect from 4 January 2011. Before the 2015 general election Labour claimed that the Conservatives would raise VAT to 22.5% if they were re-elected and Osborne reputedly refused to deny the claim. On 25 March 2015 Cameron pledged in the House of Commons that VAT would not be increased. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Value-added tax (United Kingdom)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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