Afterw or d Paradoxically, VAT has become over the last 50 years a universal tax. Despite this outstanding success, very few works have been devoted to the tax; academic scholars seem reluctant to address the subject. With the thesis of Charlène Herbain, we are faced with a daring work whose purpose is to explore the different facets of the central subject: VAT neutrality. The work succeeds in explaining beautifully the merits of such a principle; it describes its different meanings and its present limits. The author, paying tribute to Maurice Lauré -who was first in having a VAT system applied -explains thoroughly how the concept of VAT itself emerged and how the principle of neutrality is, in itself, central and fundamental to the very logics of the tax. The work has the great merit of showing how this principle has overcome the different attacks launched against it by the tax administrations. Going hand-in-hand with the fractionated payment of the tax, the principle of Neutrality has become the very foundation of the tax, being now protected by strong, repetitive jurisprudence of the European court of justice. The work, through constant reference to the jurisprudence, illustrates perfectly how the European court of justice can protect businesses in their function of tax collectors. EU VAT, having conquered the internal market, the EU model being copied the world over, is now facing new challenges. How can the EU model adapt in order to be internally more efficient, to eradicate fraud and to make the different tax administrations more cooperative; the ultimate ambitious aim being to create a common tax, belonging to each tax administration of the member states. By adopting the destination principle together with the « unique place of declaration » the EU institutions have launched a new challenge for the next generation to implement successfully. With Charlène Herbain’s work, the guidelines to such a successful path now exist. Jean-Claude Bouchard Lawyer, Membre of the VAT Expert Group of the European Commission and Lecturer at the Université de Bourgogne P R O M O C U L T U R E – L A R C I E R 232759KGL_VAT_CS5-5_PC.indb 267 10/04/2015 08:28:31