Celebrating 50 years of VAT

It is a pleasure to introduce this special edition of Taxation magazine celebrating if that is the right word 50 years of VAT. As most readers will know it was a requirement of entry into what was then called the Common Market that the UK should introduce a VAT system.

The legislation was introduced in FA 1972 and came into effect in April 1973. In my column on 2 March I asked you to share with us your anecdotes about the early days of VAT. I was delighted with the response and I used as many of them as I could in this piece.

A simple tax

We had originally intended to republish a series of the articles which were printed in the magazine at the time to show how Taxation dealt with the introduction to this new and important tax. But we were in for...