Singapore: Goods and Services Tax for e-commerce transactions in Singapore

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To provide clarity on the Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) treatment for e-commerce transactions, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (“IRAS”) has issued a new e-tax guide: “GST: Guide for e-Commerce”.

The e-tax guide clarifies that the medium through which a transaction occurs does not alter the taxability of the transaction. In other words, a supply of goods or services made via the Internet or other electronic media is no different from that made via traditional methods. As such, a GST-registered business is required to charge and account for GST on such transactions, as applicable. The e-tax guide also provides guidance on the GST treatment for the supply of physical goods, digitised goods and services made via the Internet and other electronic media.

What does this mean for you?

If you do business in Singapore and also have a GST registration, you should be aware that GST should be applied to all goods that are ordered or delivered on-line.

EU: Proposal of the new Voucher Directive

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As reported some time ago the EU Commission is working on the proposal of a Voucher Directive, which will amend the VAT Directive with rules on vouchers.

Please find the current draft of the proposal here.

This is another topic that will be discussed during our meeting of the B2C 2015 Working Group on 24 October 2012 in Brussels. If you are not already member of this group, contact Sophie Claessens directly.

EU: Mini one stop shop (MOSS) regulation for ebusinesses adopted

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The Council Regulation (EU) No 967/2012 laying down rules on the application of the provisions of the VAT Directive concerning special schemes for taxable persons supplying telecommunications services, broadcasting services or electronic services to non-taxable persons (i.e. B2C) has been published.

The Regulation amends Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 and introduces new measures covering both “mini one stop shop” special schemes for EU and non-EU ebusinesses to be applied as from 1 January 2015.

For additional information you can access the Minutes of the Council (page 13) and text of the proposal.

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Germany implements Lebara decision on prepaid telecom cards

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On 24 September 2012 the German Ministry of Finance issued a decree  (only available in German language) implementing the principles of the ECJ decision in the “Lebara” case. You can read more of this case here, here and here.

Each sale of single purpose prepaid cards is regarded as a telecommunication service if these cards are sold in the supplier’s own name. Otherwise, if the sale is made in the name of a third person, an intermediary service is on hand. Whether there is a telecommunication service or an intermediary service should be considered on each distribution level.

A single purpose prepaid card in the sense of the decree requires that it can exclusively be used for telephone calls by means of the provided infrastructure, and that it contains all information necessary to make calls.

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EU: Public consultation on new VAT rates – important for ebooks, digital newspapers and other eservices

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In line with its previous indications the European Commission launched a public consultation last week in relation to the review of the reduced VAT rates. The public is invited to give their opinion on certain reduced VAT rates to see if they efficiently serve the purpose what they were created for.

The consultation forms part of the Commission’s VAT reform plans to build “a simpler, more robust and efficient VAT system”. And Commission is asking business for their input to this matter. It is your chance to have a saying in the much aniticpated reform of the EU VAT system.

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Finland: Proposed increase of VAT rates as of 1 January 2013

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The Finnish government has recently proposed to have both the reduced and the standard VAT rates increased by 1%. According to the proposal the standard rate would increase from 23% to 24% and the lower rates of 9% and 13% to 10% and 14% respectively.

The proposal is yet to be adopted by the Finnish Parliament. This will probably take place in December 2012 to have the rate hikes incorporated before the expected effective date of 1 January 2013.

What does this mean for you?

If you are registered for VAT in Finland or are a non-EU company supplying B2C e-services to Finnish residents under the one-stop-shop scheme, you will need to be ready to update your ERP system and VAT codes.

Who are B2C clients for VAT purposes?

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This article is again about one of the most frequently asked questions we are facing in our discussions with ebusinesses: What are “B2B” and what “B2C” clients?

The logical and expected explanation would be: B2B are all legal persons and B2C all natural persons / private individuals.

Unfortunately VAT follows its own logic – which is in most cases illogical when considered in everyday content. The above explanation therefore cannot be applied for VAT purposes.

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EU: VAT reporting rules for telecommunications, broadcasting and eservices mini one stop shop scheme

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The Implementing Regulation No 815/2012 defining the VAT reporting rules for the mini one stop shop scheme (“MOSS”) for B2C telecommunication, broadcasting and eservices in the EU has been made officially available.
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EU: What are eservices?

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One of the relatively common questions we receive from our ebiz clients these days is very logical: What are eservices? Let’s start with the terminology and follow it up with examples.

There are many different expressions for this kind of services: electronic services, electronically supplied services, digital services, digital products… We will call them eservices – if the European Commission can live with this, so can we. And it is such a nice, short, effective word. Find out more →

Hungary: Tax on telecoms services

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In Hungary, under the Act on Telecommunications Tax, telecom companies are subject to a new tax calculated on the basis of phone calls initiated and messages (SMS, MMS) sent by their subscribers. The new act took effect on 1 July 2012. The tax is payable by the service providers and the tax base is calculated on the basis of the total time of calls initiated and the number of messages sent from the call number of the subscriber, or, in the absence of a subscription, the call number registered at the service provider. The tax rates are HUF 2 per minute started for initiated phone calls and HUF 2 per message sent.
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