Adrian wrote:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2015 21:04:00 +1100, john james wrote:

But if Britain chose to leave the EU, an exporter would not be required
to charge the VAT that applies in the buyer's country and forward that
VAT collected to the buyer's country.

If somebody in the UK buys something from France, now, they pay French
TVA on it in the same way as a French resident would.

If somebody in France buys something from the UK, now, they pay UK VAT on
it in the same way as a UK resident would.

If somebody in the UK buys something from France, after we leave the EU,
they would pay UK VAT (and any duty that might be applicable) on it on
import, involving declarations of value and usually a handling charge
from the courier in the same way as if it came from outside the EU
currently.

If somebody in France buys something from the UK, after we leave the EU,
they would pay French TVA (and any duty that might be applicable) on it
on import, involving declarations of value and usually a handling charge
from the courier in the same way as if it came from outside the EU
currently.

Seems to me that the current way of dealing with other EU countries is by
far and away the easier one. Unless, of course, you really believe that
the UK would get shot of any kind of value-added/goods-and-services/
purchase/sales tax if we left the EU?

Can't see that happening, not least because it would leave a roughly
£100bn hole in the Gov'ts income each year that'd need to be filled with
something else.

Yes, sales tax.