Why were Lotuses sold as kits?
From John O’Connor (jpoc@strat-sys.bt.co.uk): In the UK, for most of the post war years, one of the main forms of tax used by the government was purchase tax. This was a sales tax levied at various percentages on a wide range of goods. In this environment, cars were considered to be a luxury item and thus a high level of purchase tax was levied against them. For some reason, along with food, childrens clothing and books, kit cars were not taxed with the purchase tax. Thus, in the UK, kit cars were a lot cheaper than fully assembled cars and the market flourished. In the early 1970s, the UK joined what was then called the European Economic Community (now known as the European Union). One membership condition of the EEC was the imposition of a tax known as Value Added Tax or VAT. This is another sales tax and is used by the EEC/EU as a revenue gathering instrument for it’s own purpose. To gain equity across the organisation, each country must levy a similar rate of VAT on a similar range
