Untangling the worldwide VAT web on digital supplies
Source: Australian Tax Forum Journal Article
Published Date: 1 Jul 2017
The imposition of value-added tax (VAT) style consumption taxes on so-called digital supplies is a challenge that has been made necessary by general trends of globalisation and the change in patterns of supply and consumption in the modern economy. Part of this challenge relates to the complexities associated with the supply of intangibles, and this complexity is exacerbated by the fact that many such supplies take place across international borders. Tax systems have long been attempting to meet such challenges and these efforts have been redoubled as a result of the OECD/G20 motivated base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) initiatives aimed at reducing opportunities to minimise taxation using cross-border structures and arrangements. At the same time, the OECD has been proactive in developing guidelines, for application internationally among OECD members, affecting the imposition of the VAT laws. The most common recent efforts to deal with cross-border supplies of intangibles have been the burgeoning examples of the so-called Netflix tax. This is a tax on consumption that might initially be thought to tax consumption of movies, electronic games and similar forms of entertainment.
This article will review the VAT laws applicable to cross-border provision of so-called digital supplies in a selection of jurisdictions, namely, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Canada. The authors will critically analyse the taxes on digital supplies in those jurisdictions and determine the extent to which they comply with, or depart from, the OECD guidelines.
Sorry, this is subscriber only content.
To gain access to this material and much more - Subscribe Now.
(Note: Members can access Taxation in Australia journal articles without a Tax Knowledge Exchange subscription - please log in to access).
Already a Subscriber? Login now
Already a Subscriber? Login now
Details
- Published By: Madeleine Stiglingh, Michael Walpole CTA
- Published On:1 Jul 2017
The material is copyright. Apart any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research criticism or review, as permitted under the copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from The Tax Institute.
Unless expressly stated, opinions are not that of The Tax Institute, which accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within it.
The Tax Institute
(ABN 45 008 392 372 (PRV14016))
("TTI")
The Tax Institute is a Recognised Tax Agent Association (RTAA) under the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009.
Copyright Statement
All materials provided on this site are protected by copyright and are owned by or licensed to TTI.
Except as expressly permitted by TTI or the copyright owner, any person or company who uses this site must not use, reproduce, redistribute, retransmit, publish or otherwise transfer, or commercially exploit, the materials or any information, software or other content, in whole or in part, which is available through this site.
Tags
Share this page