Yep John - one of the stipulations of allowing the UK to join the EEC in the early 1970s'.
Although in fairness - we did have 'sales tax' before then
I remember when VAT came in. We had a china shop, Purchase tax (as it then was) was between 25% and 55% (going on memory) depending on whether the item was functional or decorative and was added by the manufacturer before the retailer ever saw it. We didn't have to bother with any form of accounting for it. The first VAT rate was 10% and the reg. threshold was £5,000 p.a. so it roped in nearly everybody. They even had to run courses to show people how it worked, and it was seen as the end of life as we knew it. Over the years the VAT rate went up first of all to a weird twin-rate of 8% and 12.5%, then they scrapped that and went to 15%, then finally 17.5% and the threshold went up to its present level. It begs the question - for those cc's doing less than £1,000 a week, is it worth staying registered? De-reg. and it's like an immediate 20% price rise on domestics (if you give them an inclusive price). The only outgoings you can claim on are basically chemicals, phones, office costs and fuel, which can be carefully monitored; a lot of other overheads are not vat'ed anyway like insurance, bank charges, road tax and so on. It would also get rid of that gloomy cheque thing every three months! Would be interested in other people's sums.
Happy cleaning!