By Eddie Lee, Robert Yam & Co.
Generally, e-commerce is a growing market, with many countries in Asia, including Singapore, accelerating the e-commerce push. This refers to the growing trend of online transactions for the supply of physical goods, digitised goods, and services between two or more contractual parties. Many tax authorities around the world, including the IRAS in Singapore, are keen to tap on this growing source of tax revenue.
By Carla Bendeman, Nolands
On 15 March 2020, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs declared a national state of disaster in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A customs duty rebate and/or a VAT exemption, as summarised below, became operational and provides for the relief of distress of persons impacted by the pandemic.
By Brigitte Jakoby, Jakoby Dr Baumhof
The European Commission has initiated formal infringement proceedings against Germany regarding the new German legislation on the liability for operators of online marketplaces on 10 October 2019. The new rules came into force on 01 January 2019.
By Valeria Khmelevskaya, KBK Accounting
Starting from 2019, new rules for calculation and paying VAT were introduced for foreign B2B providers of electronically supplied services (ESS), foreseeing obligatory tax registration and direct VAT payment via VAT-offce, available under lkioreg.nalog.ru/en. The previously applied reverse-charge procedure is not possible based on the current provisions of the Russian Tax Code.
By Steve McCrindle, Haines Watts
“Civil” tax fraud investigations by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are categorised as Code of Practice 8, for which the punishment is a financial penalty (or penalties).
By Greg Gartner and Lindsay Kindrachuk, Moodys Gartner Tax Law LLP
Recipients of most supplies made in Canada must pay federal tax of 5% of the value of the supply, referred to as goods and services tax (GST) and legislated under Canada’s Excise Tax Act (the ETA). The supplier, however, has the duty to register to collect and remit this tax to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), with few exceptions, or risk assessment for the uncollected GST, plus interest and penalties. All but one province, Alberta, also have a provincial sales tax. Some provinces have “harmonised” their sales tax with the GST (e.g. Ontario) resulting in a higher rate (HST) to be collected and remitted to the CRA where supplies are made in that province, and others administer their own sales tax (e.g. British Columbia) requiring a separate consultation of that province’s sale tax legislation.
By Siffat Kaur, Ashwani & Associates
Rapid digitisation is one constant that has changed the world we live in. From buying groceries to booking cabs, almost everything is possible online. As more and more people participate in the digital economy, there is a need for countries to develop a framework to regulate and to get a “fair” share of taxes from the revenues generated by such businesses.
By Edith Huber-Wurzinger, Gaedke & Angeringer Steuerberatung GmbH
The Austrian tax reform for 2020 necessitated some organisational modifications and implementations within the scope of the IT systems for many entrepreneurs. The new provisions are especially important for the transnational movement of goods in the internal market.
By Graeme Saggers, Nolands
On 01 June 2014, South Africa implemented regulations that required certain foreign providers of electronic services to register for VAT. These regulations have gone through an amendment and new regulations were published on 18 March 2019 with an effective date of 01 April 2019. The original regulations limited the scope of services that qualified as electronic services and which must be charged with VAT at the standard rate.
By Pablo Garciga, Funaro & Co. PC
Since Wayfair was decided by the US Supreme Court in October 2018, economic nexus has dominated state and local tax discussions. It is important to remember that physical connections to a state will still create nexus even if the economic nexus thresholds are not exceeded. For example, an outof- state vendor (“vendor”) attends a trade show in a state and makes USD 25,000 in sales. This may not exceed the sales threshold to meet the state’s sales tax economic nexus definition, but the vendor may have created nexus for the sales or use tax.
