Is VAT A Villain?

Tom Wheelwright does not like tariffs. But he sees the current interest in tariffs on the part of the Trump administration partly as an attempt to correct the imbalance caused by value-added taxes imposed by our trading partners.   “I’m not advocating a VAT,” Wheelwright said....   “There is a whole list of good reasons not to have a VAT....

“The reason there is a tariff war is because the way the U.S. tax law is structured, imports are heavily favored compared to our exports,” said Wheelwright, a CPA and CEO of WealthAbility. “All of our trading partners have a value-added tax — think general sales tax — that applies to imports and not to exports. So when we export something to them, they tax that import with a value-added tax in addition to an income tax. We have an income tax but no value-added tax.”