This is the eleventh edition of Consumption Tax Trends, a biennial OECD publication. It presents cross-country comparative data relative to consumption taxes in OECD member countries, as at 1 January 2016. Tables using data from the National Accounts and data on tax revenue from Revenue Statistics 1965-2015 are updated up to and including 2014. Price levels for fuel oils are updated as at 4th Quarter 2015 from Energy Prices and Taxes – Quarterly Statistics issued by the International Energy Agency. The country data for the report have, for the most part, been provided by delegates to Working Party No. 9. The exchange rates used to convert national currencies into US dollars (USD) are average market rates for 2015 taken from the OECD Monetary and Financial Statistics, except for (), and () where the Purchase Power Parity (PPP) rates are used as they provide for a better comparison of the value of VAT relief thresholds (PPP rates for GDP 2015 are extracted from the OECD Statistics Database).

Consumption taxes generally consist of general taxes on goods and services (taxes on general consumption), consisting of value-added tax (VAT) and its equivalent in several jurisdictions (goods and services tax, or GST), sales taxes, and other general taxes on goods and services; and taxes on specific goods and services, consisting primarily of excise taxes, customs and import duties, and taxes on specific services (such as insurance premiums and financial services).

This chapter describes the relative importance of consumption taxes as a source of tax revenues and the main features of these taxes. It shows the evolution of consumption tax revenues between 1965 and 2014. It describes the functioning of value added taxes (VAT) and of retail sales taxes (in the United States) and the main characteristics of consumption taxes on specific goods and services. It looks in some more detail at the application of VAT to international trade, more particularly at the challenges of applying VAT to cross-border trade and at the International VAT/GST Guidelines that the OECD has developed as the global standard to address these challenges. Finally, it considers the recent developments concerning VAT fraud and evasion and outlines some of the countermeasures that have been implemented in some countries or that may be implemented in the future.

This chapter describes a selection of key features of VAT regimes in OECD countries, i.e. tax rates, exemptions, specific restrictions to input tax credit, registration and collection thresholds and the application of margin schemes. It is complemented with a technical discussion of the rationale and impact of reduced VAT rates.

This chapter describes how the VAT Revenue Ratio (VRR) provides an indicator of the effect of exemptions, reduced rates and non-compliance on government revenues. It presents the updated VRR estimates for OECD countries and explains how the VRR is calculated and how it should be interpreted. It is complemented with technical notes on the measurement of final consumption expenditure, on the VAT treatment of public sector activities and on the VAT exemption for financial services.

This chapter describes the main features of selected excise duties and their impact on revenue, customer behaviour and markets. It explains the respective impact of ad quantum and ad valorem taxes and how they interact. It shows the detailed excise tax rates on beer, wine, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and mineral oil products in OECD countries.

This chapter describes the main features of vehicle taxes and their use for influencing customer behaviour over the last decades, in particular within the context of environmental policies. It looks in more detail at the taxes on sale and registration of vehicles and recurrent taxes on use of motor vehicles and their components and provides comparative statistics on the level of these taxes.