I've been using QB since 2001, but recently, partly as a result of trying to move to QB Online, I've been having a lot of difficulty in getting VAT coding right. For various reasons, I've now given up trying to migrate to QB Online and instead am in QB Desktop Pro 2017. Because we've been using the tool for so long, and over the years have gathered a lot of cruft in terms of VAT items and codes, I thought I'd take a look at how a newly created company file gets created in terms of VAT bits and pieces. It raises a few questions that maybe someone can answer. All of these are in the context of a brand new company file, just set up with Standard Scheme VAT:

1. Why is the N (Not Registered) code set up by default as Taxable and not Tax Exempt?
2. Same question for the E (Exempt) code: why is it set up as Taxable and not Tax Exempt?
3. In Edit->Preferences...->VAT, under Company Preferences, why is the answer to the question, "Choose the VAT code you use most often for ... Tax exempt items", set up to be O (Out of Scope) instead of E? Actually, the reason is obvious once you realize that E has been set up as Taxable and not Tax Exempt, so you *cannot* choose it as the answer; and you can't choose N either, for the same reason. In fact there's only one VAT code that is set up out the box as Tax Exempt, and that is O (Out of Scope), which is why it is given as the answer. But is that correct? If not, it really just raises my other questions again: *why* is E (and N) set up as Taxable? Shouldn't E (Exempt) at very least be, well, Tax Exempt?
4. And then back to that N code again. Why are the two VAT Items that the N code links to --- Not Registered Purchases and Not Registered Sales --- set up with their VAT Return Box fields set to <4, 7> VAT on Purchases, Net Purchases and <1, 6> VAT on Sales, Net Sales  respectively? It suggests that when preparing a VAT return, purchases from a Supplier who is not registered for VAT will be treated just like Zero-Rated purchases from a Supplier who *is* VAT-registered. Is that really the way it should be?

Are the default codes (i.e. those produced by QuickBooks on creating a new company) correct?

thx.