A Review of the VAT System in Iran and Selected Countries

In this paper، in order to achieve the roadmap for reforming the VAT law and its administrative procedures in Iran، executive components evaluation of the VAT system in 22 countries and its comparison with Iran have been studied. The results suggest that the VAT in Iran is a consumption one and based on the destination principle as in the selected countries. Registration criteria in most of the countries are annual turnover or annual taxable turnover، while in Iran، addition to these criteria، the nature of economic activities also is used. Moreover، VAT standard rate in almost all countries، except Austria، India، is a unit as in the Iran. In the countries without discounted rates in their tax structure، usually there is a wider range of exempted goods and services without credit، and this observed in Iran، Armenia and etc.