The article is devoted to highlighting the historical stages of the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) in the European Union countries and a number of other states, identifying the reasons and factors that contributed to its implementation, as well as the consequences of replacing turnover tax with VAT. The article refers to the widely accepted classification of taxes into direct and indirect in the theory of financial law and emphasizes that, from a historical perspective, direct taxes emerged earlier. The basis for classification lies in the criterion of tax shifting, whereby the burden of paying indirect taxes is transferred from the taxpayer to other persons. The spread of indirect taxes was due to insufficient tax revenues and an urgent need to increase them. Initially, indirect taxes were introduced in the form of excise systems, where the object of taxation was primarily the value of goods with specific characteristics. The most common forms of consumption taxes in the domestic market are specific and universal excises. Specific excises apply to certain groups of goods—highly profitable and monopolized—while universal excises cover the entire volume of sales, including all goods and services offered for sale. In the early period of indirect taxation, the most widespread form of universal excise was the turnover tax, which had a significant drawback related to the cumulative effect. The need to eliminate the shortcomings of the turnover tax and the growing fiscal needs led to the search for alternative forms of indirect taxation. The most effective solution became the value-added tax, which allowed taxpayers to reclaim part of the taxes paid. The article outlines three main historical stages of the introduction of indirect taxes and describes the development of VAT taxation in EU countries. It is noted that with the adoption of a special Directive on the unification of legal provisions regulating VAT collection in the member states of the Community, VAT was established as the principal indirect tax, and its mandatory introduction became a requirement for all EEC member states. For countries aspiring to join the Community in the future, the existence of a functioning VAT system became a necessary condition. The conclusion is drawn that, historically, the introduction of value-added tax and the development of its administration became a logical outcome of improving the system of indirect taxation, particularly universal excises.
Svitlana Hretsa (Thu,) studied this question.