Carl Shoup

Carl Sumner Shoup (October 26, 1902 – March 23, 2000)^[1][2][3] was an economist who led the Shoup Mission of seven economists at the invitation of General MacArthur to revise the Tax System in post World War II Japan. Directly contributed to the tax codes of Canada, the United States, Japan, Europe, and South and Central America in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Professor Emeritus of Columbia University.

Family

Carl Shoup was the son of railroad executive Paul Shoup and Rose Wilson Shoup. He was married to Ruth Snedden; they had three children: sons Donald and Paul Shoup and daughter Dale S. Mayer^[4] (who married John Mayer of the Lehman family, the great-grandson of Emanuel Lehman, the co-founder of Lehman Brothers).

Born in San Jose, and grew up in Los Altos riding his horse to school. Graduate of Stanford Law School in 1924.^[1]

Government Economic and Tax Policy

Co-directed, with fellow economist Roy Blough, the creation of the 1937 six-volume study "Report on the Federal Revenue System" of American taxes and potential reforms at the request of Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.^[1][5]

Carl Shoup poses for a photograph with Lorraine Eden (to his left), William Vickrey (to his right), Richard Musgrave (second from the right in the front row), and others at a conference organized in his honor in Ottawa, Canada in 1989.

Carl Sharp was identified as the intellectual father of the value-added tax (VAT)^[6] Shoup developed a taxonomy for describing the value alled taxes and linking the administration of the VAT to the capabilities of the particular country.^[7]

In the late 1940s, he led the Shoup Mission in Japan that led to their current tax system in use today.^[5]

Participated in the creation of the Value Added Tax systems in Canada and Europe in the 1950s.^[5]

In the 1950s, he contributed to the overhaul of the tax systems in Venezuela, Cuba, and Liberia^[5]

Authorship

• Public Taxation: April 1969 by Intervale Publishing Company ISBN 0-932400-02-7^[8]
• Ricardo on Taxation: September 1992 by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd ISBN 0-7512-0060-3^[9]

Honors

• Shoup was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure twice by Japan’s Emperor Hirohito.^[5] The order of the sacred treasure is an award from the country of Japan for long and meritorious service.^[10]
• McVickar Professor Emeritus of Political Economy^[11]
• Columbia University Professorship in Honoring Carl Sumner Shoup Endowed by Toyota Motor Company^[5][11]
• Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association ^[12]

References