54 Finance – Challenges of the Future Theoretical Considerations on VAT Structure Rates in the European Union Ionela BUTU 1 , Petre BREZEANU 2 , Adriana PORUMBOIU 3 , Raluca- Andreea GHEȚU 4 1,2,3,4 University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania butuionela19@stud.ase.ro, petre.brezeanu@fin.ase.ro, adriana_porumboiu@yahoo.com, gheturaluca93@yahoo.com Abstract. According to the well-known statement of the American scientist Benjamin Franklin, the Polymath, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789: “Nothing is certain in this world, excepting death and taxes”. This article provides an overview of theoretical concepts existing in the specialized literature regarding VAT rates. The present paper summarizes the current VAT rates applied by member states in EU and the definition of the concept. Generally speaking, the VAT systems in place across the European Union are still quite heterogeneous, despite the common legal framework and guidelines in place. In addition to the reduced rates, some Member States also have super-reduced rates, parking rates and zero rates. Also, I highlight the evolution of the VAT Revenue in 2017-2018. Besides these, I underlined the image of the emergent states regarding the percentage in GDP of the indirect, direct and social contributions and VAT average rate, in comparison with the developed countries. Keywords: Indirect taxes, direct taxes, VAT standard rate, VAT reduced rates, VAT super-reduced rate, parking rate, VAT revenue. JEL classification: H25, H20. 1. Introduction In the current economic context, the tax represents a non-refundable mandatory contribution, unconditional and non-payment contribution due to the state budget by physical or juridical persons on their income and for the goods they own. The taxpayer consents to pay the tax and voluntarily comply to this burden, until a certain point when taxes exceed limits of tolerability, phenomena occur in which causes serious damage to the state ability to collect these revenues (Brezeanu Petre, 2009). Historically, taxes have been with us for as long as civilization (Alain Charlet and Jeffrey Owens), so the Value added tax - VAT at 65 years old is relatively young. VAT was first introduced in France, from the initiative of Maurice Loire in 1954 and in the following years was adopted by the member states of the European Union as well as other states (Lacrita-Grigorie, 2009). In most countries it has been used to increase revenues. The Value Added Tax, VAT – is as the name implies a tax on the value added at each stage of the production chain. Each trader applies the relevant VAT to each outgoing invoice. (Copenhagen Economics, 2007). To be more specific, we can extend this definition and say that value added tax is a general consumption tax, which includes all stages of the economic circuit, respectively: production, services and distribution, up to final consumers, an indirect tax that is established on transactions relating to the transfer of property and service supplies (Avram, M., Avram, V., 2012). In Romania, the value added tax was introduced on 1 July 1993 (Government Ordinance No. 3/1992). Since then and so far, value added tax is determined by the