ATA Carnet
Categories: Tax
It sounds like a fancy red wine ("Ask the sommelier if the 1994 Ata Carnet will pair appropriately with the braised veal shanks in rosemary cream sauce"). But, in fact, it's a document used in certain customs transactions.
Sometimes a product is imported into a country with the intention that it will eventually get exported somewhere else. Basically, it's coming for a visit, not to live there. A carnet allows this process to happen without the payment of import duties or taxes.
It's sometimes called a "merchandise passport," allowing the item to pass through multiple countries on its way to its final destination.
Imagine taking a tanker truck full of maple syrup from Canada to Mexico. You have to drive through the U.S., but the syrup isn't staying in the U.S. and it isn't getting sold in the U.S. You would obtain an ATA carnet for the shipment. Then you can drive the truck through the U.S. to Mexico without paying U.S. duties, though you'd eventually have to pay whatever fees are required by the Mexican authorities.
Carnet is the general term for this type of document. The ATA part designates a group of 87 countries that belong to a particular carnet system. Various countries may have other carnet systems with different specific regulations. For instance, the U.S. has a separate carnet with Taiwan known as the TECRO/AIT carnet, which has a different set of rules from the ATA Carnet.
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finance a la shmoop what is the eighty or VAT well it's this what okay then I
never mind Breaking Bad was awesome though anyway in finance land VAT or V.A.T[Car drives by financeland sign]
stands for value-added tax and it is simply a consumption tax like the tax
rate on anything you buy in Massachusetts is say ten percent so you
think that car cost thirty grand no it was thirty three grand and you'll pay [Car on a driveway]
other v.a.t.s like a tax for your license plate registration and other
stuff note that the V and the A in their value-added yeah and it's a fair
question to ask value-added for whom and the answer is the government the taxman [Uncle Sam poster appears on wall]
v80 tax is that three dollar gallon of gas at the same rate for Bill Gates as
it does for Joe Sixpack it is a regressive tax that is rich in poor
people all pay the same rate and yes Bill Gates jet probably uses more gas [Bill Gates stood by a jet]
than does Joe six-packs but the rate per gallon is the same and this causes
controversy among various political factions who feel that it's wrong to tax [Political figures speaking on stage]
the poor at the same rate as the rich well when it comes to income tax the
rich are taxed vastly more not just in volumes of dollars taxed because they
earn more money but in the rate of tax applied like let's punish those
hard-working plumbing parts suppliers and reward the guy who's asleep at the [People using laptop on benches]
tollgate taking the five bucks like someone in a blue state making thirty
grand a year pays fifteen percent tax on their last dollar someone making 500
grand pays like fifty cents or half so over time a number of politicians have
suggested that v80 should somehow have an income level overlay that is the
buyer of a given gallon of gas should state what income tax bracket they're in [Man unscrewing gas knob]
when they go to the gas pump and that for Bill Gates that gallon should cost [Gas pump filling up car]
like thirty eight dollars whereas for the Union Tollbooth worker yeah wake up
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their gallon of gas fair not fair well ask the toll booth guy
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