Grambaitė, Gintarė

Since the birth of the Value Added Tax, only 50 years ago, it has come to be adopted by more than 130 countries, including not only all OECD 1 members, but also many developing co untries. The actual VAT system generates high and disproportionate risks for business, the unpaid tax collectors, due to non - legitimate traders committing fraud. Fraud - prevention measures taken increase the complexity of the current VAT system for legitima te traders, create legal uncertainty when doing business in the EU and shift risks to legitimate traders. The complexity of European VAT system and the legal uncertainty multiply VAT disputes and litigation in the Member States and at the Court of Justice of the EU. So now is an appropriate time to reflect on the VAT system. What it has established properly or not. However, Member States of European Union are not accepting the following situation there the rates of VAT are too different and there is no adeq uate mechanism to redistribute VAT receipts to mirror actual consumption. My purpose in this paper is to stimulate further interest in the VAT system in European Union and propose the theoretical guidelines for the new VAT system to establish in Europe, wh ich has been extraordinary maltreated in the academic literature until nowadays.

This paper analyzes the Real Estate sales process from the point of view of taxation in Lithuania and in France. The authors focused on the most relevant and debatable legal issues in their opinion which impact the status of the individuals selling their dwelling located in one of these countries, and the impact on the tax regulations on the property owner‘s behavior. The first part deals with profit taxation systems and their differences in both France and Lithuania. The authors analyze the legislative regulation and implementation problems, the compliance of the regulation with the European Union provisions for the taxation purposes, submit proposals for regulatory improvement. They analyse the scope of taxation of profit gained from the sales of real estate which are made by a natural person, also the effect of the real estate sales over-taxation on Lithuanian and French residents’ behavior. It should be noted that the authors of the article provide a number of tables that visually show the tax burden impact on the state‘s economy and the real estate owner‘s behavior. It should be noted that for the analysis of profits taxation issue, one of the most important questions is whether the individual is a resident of a country where such a fee is paid. As provided by the international treaties, double taxation could be avoided, but because of the many exceptions the application of such treaties is not quite clear. It should be noted that Lithuania stands out from other European Union countries in real estate taxation because the tax system is not such an immense burden on a citizen as it is in France. It can be argued that in taxation of real estate, it is necessary to take into account the application of the principle of fairness in tax law, and the state economic goals.