Development of tax rates in the EU countries

The object of the bachelor thesis is the development of the tax rates in the European Union (EU). Tax policy is an integral part of the EU since its establishment and for the smooth functioning of the internal market of the EU Member States was chosen the value added tax (VAT) as a general tax on consumption. Value added tax is subject to harmonization within the EU rules but the original intention of a single tax rate of the VAT in all Member States has not been reached yet, the VAT system is still in the so-called the transition period and the Member States are enough autonomous in the application of the VAT rates. The main objective is to determine whether the standard and the reduced VAT rates in the EU Member States converged during the period from 1999 to 2015. The analysis is based on calculation of the coefficient of variation. The secondary objective is to analyse the evolution of average standard and reduced VAT rates in the EU Member States and identify trend in the number of applied reduced rates. By the convergence analysis was detected the convergence in both standard and reduced VAT rates. However, the values of the coefficient of variance were significantly lower for the standard VAT rate than those for the reduced rate