"Most VAT systems exclude public bodies from the scope of value added tax(VAT) systems. However, a movement to include public sector bodies withinthe GST system to some extent or even fully (as in New Zealand) is gainingmomentum, and underlies the European Commission's 2011 study on thetreatment and economic impact of exemptions in the public interest. Whether thepresent EU treatment really is as bad as some of its critics suggest, and whether theNew Zealand model really is so perfect that jurisdictions with exclusion modelsought simply to replace these existing systems with a New Zealand style system:these are the questions which triggered this research and which form the basis forthe critical analysis contained in this book."