The ideas of Maurice Lauré on VAT in the 1950s

Abstract

A Fiscalis visit to France in 2010 broadened my horizons regarding the origins of VAT. On our way to observe a session at the Conseil d’État, my French host mentioned that VAT originated in France: that it is based on Maurice Lauré’s idea presented in the early 1950s. I decided there and then that I wanted to find out more about this subject. Doing so led me to write an article in Finnish on the basis of Lauré’s book, La Taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, for a Finnish journal called Verotus (trans Taxation). The review that you are now reading in English also comprises some of Lauré’s thoughts from a book named Au secours de la TVA, which was published in 1957. The title that Lauré gave to his first book on VAT, La Taxe sur la valeur ajoutée, translates into English simply as ‘Value Added Tax’. Au secours de la TVA in English is ‘To the rescue of VAT’. My interest in Lauré’s thoughts and the reason for reading his early books relate to the question of whether his ideas still have some relevance in understanding the VAT system we have in Europe today. Assuming that the VAT we apply today has its origins in ideas similar to Lauré’s original idea of VAT, his thoughts are of more than historical value when evaluating the idea of VAT. It is possible that I am not alone in holding this view. In the Commission’s document SEC(2010) 1455 final, it is also stated that ‘Maurice Lauré is usually seen as the father of VAT’, and Lauré’s views on exemptions from VAT are briefly referred to in that document: