Re: You don't have to pay VAT for business expenses?
"Doesn't make sense to me that businesses are exempt from paying VAT."
That's because it's not technically a sales tax, it's more akin to a luxury tax and is currently 20%
VAT doesn't apply to the "essentials" of life such as most food (weird exceptions), childrens clothes (handy if you are small, women in particular), books (but not ebooks). What's an average sales tax in the US? Would Apple be buying in printers to re-sell if there was a 20% tax on their wholesale purchase followed by a further 20% tax for the end consumer? No way is Apple paying Sales tax, they would just mark it up on the retail price and anyway, business only pay tax on profits, so any tax added to their business purchases are offset against the profits and hence their tax.
As our infamous ex-reg journo was fond of pointing out time and again, only the end consumer pays taxes. Everything else is just expensive and non-productive paper shuffling to hide the real situation.