I think the different sales tax rates from county to county & city to city is something people here have trouble understanding, as our VAT is done on a national basis.
The reclaim procdure seems to be slightly different, as we can reclaim VAT paid on expenses straight away, not just after the goods are used or resold.
There are a few goods & services which have no tax: Food, children's clothing, books, postage, etc.
By the way, the same basic system operates in other EU countries, except that have different rates are few differences in exempt items. (Technically there are "exempt" items and "zero-rated" items, which are not the same thing, but I won't go into that!)
