ABSTRACT
Taxation and social insurance contributions take about a third of the national income in most West European countries. In 1953 the Scientific Advisory Council of the Finance Ministry produced a Report entitled Organic Tax Reform which examined the German tax structure as a whole and suggested the ways in which it could be reformed. In France, as in Germany, there has been a debate about fiscal neutrality, particularly in the Fourth Plan. In France, however, it has centred on the justification of measures, supported by the planners, for the provision of selective incentives in order to encourage certain types of activity. The chief aims of fiscal policy in Britain have traditionally been efficiency of collection, equity as between one taxpayer and another, and a fair distribution of incomes after tax. Consideration has been given in Britain to the introduction of an added-value tax to replace the existing profits tax, and possibly also purchase tax.
