France has indicated that it may make facilitating marketplaces the VAT deemed supplier on all import transactions. The EU intention is only to require marketplaces to take on the VAT obligation on imported sales of its third-party sellers if the consignment intrinsic value does not exceeds €150.
The annual estimate by the European Commission of the amount of missing VAT – the ‘VAT Gap’ – has remained constant at €140 billion for 2018. However, the EC is now forecasting a rise in this to €164bn, 14% of revenues, for 2020 as a
Cyprus is to extend the application of the domestic reverse charge to mobile phones, CPU’s, games consoles, laptops and similar products. This will come into effect from 1 October 2020. Reverse charge to block missing trader fraud The measure obliges resident or non-resident providers of
Germany, UK, Ireland and many other countries are rushing through standard and reduced VAT cuts to help support consumer confident and bolster businesses in lockdown. But the economics and business benefits make little sense. The efforts to adjust and manage the changes, and whether they
Poland has become the latest country to introduce a simple, local and modern (‘SLIM’) VAT initiative. The Polish measures, to be implemented in early 2021, announced include: Advance payments on exports may benefit from zero rating if the goods are shipped up to six months
25 reforms – improve VAT and other taxes’ fairness and simplicity The European Commission (EU) unveiled its Tax Action Plan in July 2020, a range of 25 Value Added Tax and other tax reforms to improve the efficiency and fairness of tax collections across the twenty
The standard German VAT rate has been temporarily lowered from 19% to 16% between 1 July and 31 December 2020 to help businesses and consumers during the coronavirus pandemic. The reduced VAT rate has also been cut from 7% to 5%. The German Finance Ministry
Saudi Arabia has increased its standard VAT rate from 5% to 15% from 1 July 2020. The aim is to sure up government revenues as the COVID-19 crisis has led to a fall in global oil prices and oil duties for the Arab Gulf state.
The city state of Singapore is looking at routes to reduce Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud. In particular, missing trader fraud which involves sellers dishonestly reporting sales as GST-exempt exports when they actually sell the goods locally and pocket the GST charged. The measures
Malaysia introduced a Digital Services Tax from 1 January 2020. This is a turnover tax on foreign entities selling various electronic taxes into Malaysia. The rate is 6%. Malaysia withdrew its short-lived 6% Goods and Services Tax in June 2018 when it reintroduced its sales and
