Vat On E Commerce

The value of internet sales (known as e-commerce) in the UK has more than trebled between 2002 and 2004 to £18.1 billion, with a further surge around Christmas 2005, and this level is expected to rise to nearly £60 billion a year by 2010. It is estimated that in 2005-06 HM Revenue and Customs collected over £1 billion in VAT on e-commerce goods and services. HM Revenue and Customs does not separately identify the exact amount of VAT collected from e-commerce because businesses are required to calculate and pay over VAT for their entire taxable activities, which include both traditional forms of business and e-commerce. In light of these developments, this NAO report examines the implications of the growth in e-commerce for VAT collection and the approach of HM Revenue and Customs to VAT collection. The report finds that HM Revenue and Customs has been alert to emerging areas of risk, such as the failure of e-commerce businesses to register for VAT and the non-payment or underpayment of import VAT on goods ordered over the internet from outside the EU. The report supports the assessment by HM Revenue and Customs that the overall risk to VAT revenue from on-line shopping is currently low, but as activity increases in this fast changing environment, it will be important that the Department builds on its work to keep abreast of possible changes in the patterns and levels of risk to VAT.

E-commerce and EU VAT: Theory and Practice Rosamund Barr, Jeroen Bijl, Nils Bleckman, Gijsbert Bulk, Ethan Ding & Matthias Luther The new EU rules governing online sales of goods and services affect all businesses that sell online to EU customers, no matter where the seller is based. This timely book, written by leading tax professionals from various EU countries, is the first to clearly explain the VAT compliance obligations and options that businesses and tax practitioners worldwide must understand in order to adapt to the new system. In addition to describing the legal framework, the authors provide examples of how the rules work in practice and illustrate available choices for businesses, with particular attention to avoiding pitfalls. Thoroughly describing the rules affecting place of supply, liability, and accounting procedures in all relevant contexts, the book covers such areas of VAT compliance as the following: • distinction between goods and services; • differences between imported goods and goods sold intra-EU; • filing and invoicing obligations under the new one-stop shop scheme; • reclaiming foreign VAT; • mitigating fears of fraud and hijacking; • distinction between business-to-customer and business-to-business transactions; and • navigating through appeals, mistakes, and adjustments. Also covered are the particular VAT variations applicable to transactions involving the major European non-EU states – Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The important distinction between the concept of ‘nexus’ in the United States state and local tax rules and ‘place of supply’ under EU law is also fully explored. Because a very large number of remote sellers of goods and services will need to understand and comply with the changes in the EU VAT e-commerce rules, it goes without saying that this book is indispensable to in-house corporate counsel worldwide. Tax administration officials, professionals in indirect tax management, corporate tax and finance directors and other tax professionals, and academics concerned with indirect tax law are sure to welcome this essential resource.

This report provides practical guidance to tax authorities on the design and implementation of a variety of solutions for digital platforms, including e-commerce marketplaces, in the effective and efficient collection of VAT/GST on the digital trade of goods, services and intangibles. In particular, it includes new measures to make digital platforms liable for the VAT/GST on sales made by online traders through these platforms, along with other measures including data sharing and enhanced co-operation between tax authorities and digital platforms.

This book focuses on the impact of technology on taxation and deals with the broad effect of technology on diverse taxation systems. It addresses the highly relevant eTax issue and argues that while VAT may not be the ultimate solution with regard to taxing electronic commerce, it can be demonstrated to be the most effective solution to date. The book analyzes the application and the effectiveness of traditional income tax principles in contradistinction to VAT principles. Taking into account rapidly ameliorating technology, the book next assesses the compatibility between electronic commerce and diverse systems of taxation. Using case studies of Amazon.com and Second Life as well as additional practical examples, the book demonstrates the effectiveness of VAT in respect of electronic commerce and ameliorating technology in the incalculable and borderless realm of cyberspace.

In its most advanced form, e-commerce allows unidentified purchasers to pay obscure vendors in 'electronic cash' for products that are often goods, services and licenses all rolled into one. This book considers the implications for the domestic and international tax systems of the growth of e-commerce. It covers a wide variety of activities, from discussion of the principles governing direct and indirect taxation, to explanation of the implementation and use of e-commerce on the part of businesses as well as the application of existing tax principles in this field. With its focus on the broader issues surrounding the expansion of e-commerce and its attention to the problems arising internationally in this field, Global Perspectives in E-Commerce Taxation Law will appeal to scholars worldwide.

Currently European Community legislation and national legislations do not allow using electronic invoicing in a business friendly way. Electronic invoicing frequently reflects cross border transactions and related VAT issues. Electronic invoicing means that an invoice is processed and sent by the supplier's ITsystem and received and processed by the customer's ITsystem. Hence, electronic invoicing is not simply sending an invoice by e-mail. Companies cannot work efficiently within the EC as long as there are as many different legal systems as Member States. Although expert systems like iVAT will help companies to automate invoicing and assist them in tackling their daily struggle with complex VAT rules, EC legislation needs to be harmonised in order to facilitate the use of electronic invoicing. This book gives an overview of the current status in the different Member States as well as some propositions relative to the harmonisation of EC regulation with respect to electronic invoicing. Contents: PART I: VAT AND LEGAL ASPECTS Electronic invoicing in a European and national context Content of the electronic invoice Transmission of the electronic invoice Preservation of electronic invoices PART II: EDI IN EUROPE PART III: SURVEY ON THE USE OF ELECTRONIC INVOICING IN EUROPE PART III: VAT AND E-COMMERCE E-commerce and VAT aspects Proposal for a directive on VAT and electronic commerce Annex: Directive on certain legal aspects of electronic invoicing

Electronic Commerce and Multi-Jurisdictional Taxation (2001) is the successor to the widely-acclaimed Electronic Commerce and International Taxation (1999). The new edition contains expanded and enhanced consideration of the tax treatment of electronic commerce from both an income tax and a consumption tax perspective. Not only does the new edition provide a detailed and up-to-date analysis of VAT developments regarding e-commerce, but it also explores the implications of e-commerce for the US state and local sales and use tax regime. It discusses developments in Europe and the United States while enlarging its focus to include the tax treatment of e-commerce in China, India, Canada, Australia, and throughout the world. At the same time, the authors have deftly woven the latest OECD and European Community developments into the fabric of the book. There is no other book on the market today that analyzes the practical tax consequences of e-commerce with the multi-jurisdictional and multi-tax perspective of this insightful work by distinguished academics and practitioners Richard Doernberg, Luc Hinnekens, Walter Hellerstein, and Jinyan Li.

The bricks and mortar of commercial law as we know it are crumbling into dust. Electronic commerce sweeps away the very foundations of what was not so long ago our most solid, comfortable, and secure legal system. In its most advanced form e-commerce allows unidentified purchasers to pay obscure vendors, in `electronic cash,' for products that are often goods, services, and licenses all rolled into one. A payee may be no more than a computer that can take up `residence' anywhere at the drop of a hat; national boundaries are of no consequence whatsoever. Taxation authorities are understandably dismayed. This book, now in its second edition, is a minutely detailed overview of current reality in the worldwide huddle of revenue regimes as they try to cope with the most daunting challenge they have ever had to face. It analyzes a number of fast-moving trends in the behaviors of national taxation authorities, web-based companies, VoiP, certain low-tax (or no-tax) jurisdictions, and international organizations that have significant bearing on the future development of the taxation of e-commerce. These trends include the following: how United States domestic and international tax rules are being interpreted in the effort to accommodate e-commerce; the powerful retailers' lobby against the moratorium on U.S. state and local sales tax on Internet transactions; how VAT rules in EU countries and other jurisdictions are being restructured to accommodate international e-commerce; new theories of income and payment characterization, and in particular the influential OECD ongoing study; and the crucial discussion over what constitutes a `permanent establishment for tax purposes.