Expense tracking and bookkeeping for contractors

Every member of the OECD uses a Value-Added Tax except one: the United States. Instead of a national consumption tax, the US relies on a patchwork of state and local retail sales taxes, in place in 45 of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C. As a result, the US raises only about 16.8% of government revenue from consumption taxes, roughly half the OECD average of about 31%.

A US-style retail sales tax is charged once at the final sale, whereas VAT is collected in slices at every stage of the supply chain.

From 1696 to 1851, England and Wales taxed houses based on how many windows they had. To dodge the bill, owners bricked up windows, and many Georgian buildings still show these blocked-up openings today. King William III introduced it as a way to tax wealth without the controversy of an income tax.

A common myth claims the phrase 'daylight robbery' came from this tax, but there is no scholarly support for that link, and the phrase did not appear in print until 1916, over 60 years after the tax was repealed.

Bottled water is taxed at 8% but tap water at 10% — because tap water 'can also be used in washing machines and toilets' and so isn't legally a foodstuff.

The same logic produces other oddities: mirin (sweet cooking sake) is 10% as alcohol, but a <1% alcohol 'mirin-style' seasoning gets the 8% food rate.

The tax helped wreck the ruling party: months after the 3% tax launched, the LDP lost its Upper House majority for the first time in the July 1989 election, with tax anger compounding the Recruit bribery scandal that had already forced Takeshita to resign.

It was the first time the Liberal Democratic Party lost the popular vote in a national election since its 1955 founding (the vote was held 23 July 1989).