 As occurs with many indirect tax systems, to determine the tax payable by the company performing the above-mentioned transactions (output VAT), the VAT paid in the company’s acquisitions is accepted as a tax credit (input VAT).Exporters can recover VAT paid in acquisitions for up to 18 per cent of an export’s free on board (FOB) value.Companies that have not commenced productive operations with a pre-production stage equal to or longer than two years may resort to a special system to obtain the advanced recovery of the VAT levied on certain acquisitions provided that they execute an investment agreement with the state.