Almost all countries levy general consumption taxes, i.e. taxes on the sale of most goods and services to consumers. In the vast majority of those countries, this tax is a VAT, i.e. a tax collected at all stages of the processes of production and distribution of goods and services, accumulation of the tax being prevented by allowing businesses to deduct the tax they incur on their inputs from the tax they collect on their outputs. A minority of countries apply retail sales taxes, i.e. single-stage taxes on goods and services supplied to final consumers. All OECD countries levy VAT, except the United States, where resale sales taxes are levied at sub-national level (see ).

We, the high-level officials of 100 jurisdictions and international organisations worldwide, came together at the second meeting of the OECD Global Forum on VAT (the Global Forum) on 17-18 April 2014 in Tokyo to discuss progress made in the development of the OECD International VAT/GSTGuidelines (the Guidelines) as a global standard to address issues of double taxation and unintended non-taxation resulting from inconsistencies in the application of VAT to international trade.