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Pennsylvania's Sales And Use Tax: Has Nearly $1 Billion Been 'Zapped' Away In Fraud?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth
Pennsylvania's Sales And Use Tax: Has Nearly $1 Billion Been 'Zapped' Away In Fraud?, Richard Thompson Ainsworth
Faculty Scholarship
The Sales and Use Tax is an essential part of Pennsylvania’s revenue profile. Not only is it the State’s second largest revenue source, it has historically played a critical role in reducing the volatility of Pennsylvania’s overall tax collections. The sales tax is also critical to the city of Philadelphia, and Allegheny County. During the current economic downturn both the revenue and structural attributes of this levy should be pushing it to the front of the tax policy line.
The two topics that should rest atop Pennsylvania’s tax policy agenda should be: (1) joining the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative and …
Zappers - Retail Vat Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth
Zappers - Retail Vat Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth
Faculty Scholarship
Zappers skim cash sales at retail. Zappers are add-on programs used by merchants with electronic cash registers (ECRs) or point-of-sale (POS) systems. Zappers are smart and selective. They do not skim all sales, and they never skim credit card transactions.
Although they are present in every jurisdiction, Zappers appear to be most widely used in developed economies that combine high levels of cash sales with high rates of consumption tax. Sweden, for example, has a cash-intensive economy, one of the world’s highest VAT rates (25%), and also reports that 70% of the ECRs in the country are either “… constructed …