Most of the world - other than a few places (US included) - switched to VAT ages ago. It’s a more efficient system. It’s not the same as “sales tax”. It’s literary a “value added tax” and every purchase and sale includes it - even for materials and half products.
The idea here is that you pay a tax on the amount of value you add in the chain. VAT is an indirect tax, because the consumer who ultimately bears the burden of the tax is not the entity that pays it.
It’s also much more transparent, as it must be included in the quoted price. Not like the US, where you see an item on the self for $5.00 and then the total at the register is $9.54 because it now has sales, city, state, and federal tax.
Check the Wikipedia article as well: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax
This shows deep misunderstanding in what VAT is and how it works. It’s not “a flat out 20% sales tax with a different name”. The concept is different. But I do not have neither time or energy to argue on the internet.
Because we used to have sales tax.
Gee. Thanks?