Editor's Letter

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the latest edition of BDO Indirect Tax News – the Summer edition for those of us that live in Europe!

As always, there are a lot of new indirect tax developments to report and keep track of so hopefully you’ll find the articles from our contributors across the globe of interest. 

As part of our efforts to provide seamless advice to our international clients, BDO constantly focuses on developing closer personal, business, and technical cooperation between advisors in our 162 Member Firms. We believe doing so helps ensure that we provide clients timely, ‘holistic’ advice.

One recent example of how we foster closer personal and technical working relationships between our firms was a ‘VAT on Financial Services (FS)’ workshop we hosted in Amsterdam last month. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from over 20 BDO Member Firms. We anticipate that going forward, this core group will work closer together on various FS assignments, sharing information about FS developments on an internal Yammer portal for the mutual benefit of our Firm and our clients.

Finally, this year’s BDO Global Tax Conference will be held in Munich in June. The Conference will allow over 380 international tax colleagues the chance to explore the opportunities and challenges our ever-changing world creates. 

Best wishes from sunny Dublin!!

In this issue: 

• ARGENTINA - Administrative changes to the value added tax regime
• BAHRAIN - Second phase of VAT implementation to kick in
• BELGIUM - Update VAT rate modifications in Belgium (ebooks and bicycles)
• CANADA - Non-residents of Canada impacted by federal Carbon Pricing Backstop
• FRANCE - EU VAT Refund claim - Failing to respond in a timely fashion to Tax Authorities’ Request for Additional Information
• INDIA - GST - The road ahead
• JAPAN - Revision of Japanese consumption tax system
• THE NETHERLANDS - New rules regarding the special exemption scheme for small enterprises
• NORWAY - Various VAT changes in Norway
• ROMANIA - CJEU Judgment in C-17/18 Mailat - VAT treatment of a restaurant leased to a third party
• SAUDI ARABIA - Revised rules for Directors’ Fees
• SINGAPORE - Zero-rating of support services
• SOUTH AFRICA
  • Update on VAT on e-services in South Africa
  • Recent amendments, court cases and other changes in VAT for 2019
• SPAIN
  • New criteria for applying the VAT exemption to Composite Financial Services
  • VAT rate applicable to property acquisitions
• UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - New tax schemes introduced in the UAE
• ZIMBABWE - Submission of VAT returns and payments

Ivor Feerick
Chair – BDO International Indirect Tax Centre of Excellence Committee
Ireland - Dublin
ifeerick@bdo.ie