Originally Posted by
jackal
Perhaps its due to the different political culture, but I would suspect that most Americans you ask would say that they do care about this. I certainly do. It's one last, little bastion of transparency in government. Hide the tax, and it will go up--and people will not notice and eventually stop caring, as has happened with income taxes.
Perhaps. Although I do know VAT in the UK is 15% - I know that it was put down by Gordon Brown from 17.5% where it had been for many years since it was raised from 15% by John Major, ostensibly as a 2 year measure to generate funds for a poll tax transition scheme. And prior to that, it was raised from 8% (12.5% for luxury goods) by Margaret Thatcher. But since changes in VAT tend to be accompanied by reciprocal changes in income tax, it's neither here nor there.