Intelligent bookkeeping for small business

Ireland's standard VAT rate once reached as high as 35%.

Revenue's historical-rates record shows the standard rate peaked at 35% from 1 March 1983 until 1 May 1987 (during the early-1980s fiscal crisis) before falling back, eventually settling at 23%, where it remains today.

Whether a frozen meal is taxed can hinge on a judge deciding what counts as a 'prepared meal' by common experience — and Simplot (maker of Birds Eye products) lost that argument in 2023.

In Simplot Australia v Commissioner of Taxation [2023] FCA 1115 the Federal Court ruled frozen vegetable-, rice- and pasta-based products were taxable 'prepared meals' or 'combination foods', applying 'common experience and common sense' about what an everyday meal is rather than the maker's own marketing.

Whether a candy bar is taxable can hinge on whether it contains flour: in many states a Twix or Kit Kat is tax-free 'food' while a Snickers or Milky Way is taxable 'candy.'

The Streamlined Sales Tax definition (adopted by ~24 states in 2002) excludes anything listing flour as an ingredient from 'candy,' so wafer/cookie bars like Twix and Kit Kat escape candy tax while pure chocolate-and-nut bars like Snickers don't.

VAT was the UAE's first-ever broad federal tax — a country famous for charging residents no income tax began taxing nearly everything they buy on a single day, 1 January 2018.

Introduced under Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 to diversify revenue away from oil; the UAE still levies no personal income tax on residents.