The UK's strange VAT system explained | IFS Zooms In

From jaffa cakes and gingerbread men, to fur skin flow charts and children's clothes, our VAT system and its byzantine rules seem, on the surface, to be a fun quirk of the UK tax system.
But dig deeper, and one finds economic distortions and inefficiencies due to the complex way the UK's third largest tax is levied.
Leading us through this maze of complexity are Helen Miller, IFS Deputy Director and tax expert, and Dan Neidle, a tax lawyer and founder of Tax Policy Associates.
Find out more: ifs.org.uk/art...

[@neilcameron434]

Love this channel working my way though the back catalogue. I didn't hear your justification for why vat was not regressive? I don't understand.

[@tonykear4494]

Never figured the difference between "VAT exempt" and "out of scope" - which show up as separate categories on our accounts :(

[@andytc4840]

Regarding the threshold, what would be the implications of a 0.25% VAT for each £1k from £5k onwards (perhaps based on previous year's turnover)? In other words, would it be possible to remove the cliff edge?

[@Lord_Saruman]

so you would like to channel even more money onto the benefit system, right, sounds like a great way to move the country in the right direction -

[@rustledjammies8769]

Blue jumper man needs to write a script and stick to it!