That is my belief as well. I have a paper on it to review but have not had time as yet.
I'm not very familiar with the complete tax picture in Europe...but I am lead to believe that they have some income taxes in addition to the VAT
They have about every tax you can imagine, and some no one in their right minds would imagine. Must be something in the air that does it to them, or maybe it is a genetic defect common to those genetically disposed to be European politicians.