IRD wants to know what employers think of their proposals for correcting and adjusting PAYE filings. This recently released officials' paper sets out the background and proposals: http://taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz/publications/2017-ip-paye-error-correction/overview A tax...
The Australian Government has released draft legislation proposing to apply GST to downloads and streaming of digital content and other services supplied from offshore to Australian consumers. This will affect media such as games, movies, e-books and music downloaded...
Tax collectors in the EU are looking more closely at the use of lotteries to tackle VAT evasion. This paper, just published, discusses how existing lottery schemes work and reveals there could be upside for governments. It concludes more empirical evidence is needed...
The ATO has just issued a ruling on the GST treatment of Bitcoin. Here: http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?docid=%22GST%2FGSTR20143%2FNAT%2FATO%2F00001%22 In brief: 1. A transfer of bitcoin is a "supply" for GST purposes. 2. Bitcoin is not "money" under the GST...
12 GST thoughts of Christmas: 1. There's no GST on gifts (so Santa is probably not GST registered). 2. GST registered businesses can claim back the GST on gifts they buy for staff, suppliers and customers. 3. If you buy someone a gift voucher for Christmas it's quite...
The GST Act needs to be tidied up and made more user-friendly in my view. I read the GST Act every day. Sad, I know. Anyway, it used to be pretty simple to navigate around but lately I've been finding it a bit more of a challenge. (No smart comments about aging...
Non-residents wishing to register under the special GST registration system have until 28 October to ensure their registration (and refund claims) are backdated to 1 April 2014. All non-resident businesses who have incurred costs in New Zealand and who are not already...
This weekend's New Zealand general election offers some choice in GST policy. So, if you're a GST geek like me you might be swayed by what the different parties intend doing about GST. Here's what I've been able to find out about some of the main parties' GST...
IRD has published its Public Rulings work programme for 2014/15. You can find the full document here: http://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/7/7/77d3ecdd-6305-408a-8b88-541e509f487b/download-pr-work-programme-2014-2015.pdf Given GST is by far the most interesting tax here...
The recent publicity about AFL players being pinged for income tax as "entertainers" when they played the Anzac Day matches here is interesting. See here: http://www.3news.co.nz/Wellington-AFL-game-hit-with-tax/tabid/415/articleID/355731/Default.aspx Like everything...
Inland Revenue has released a draft Public Ruling on the GST treatment of payments by parents to state schools. This is a re-issue of previous rulings with just a few changes to reflect recent developments in GST law. If you want to comment on the draft ruling you...
Last week the Revenue Minister issued another Discussion Document on the GST treatment of bodies corporate. The IRD seems to have come full circle on this one. See here: Bodies corporate and GST. It is proposed our GST legislation will exempt a body corporate under...
The Bahamas will have a new VAT from 1 January 2015: 7.5% (0% for exports) on a broad range of goods and services, few exemptions, small business concessions, "inclusive" pricing and an extensive public education programme. Confirmed by the PM and Minister for...
The NZ GST Act inadequately deals with online supplies of services and should be fixed immediately.I'm referring to how the Act treats those selling products online such as e-books, movies, professional advice, teaching materials, photographs and lots of...
This is a very good item on the wider business implications of proposed changes in Europe to the VAT treatment of online digital media sales. http://performance.ey.com/2014/02/20/vat-change-online-sales-just-tax-concern/ Cheers Iain
At the Global Forum on VAT in Tokyo last week 86 countries signed up to the first agreed framework for applying VAT to internationally traded services and intangibles. The new guidelines set out core VAT principles to be applied when taxing services and intangibles,...
NZ's GST is certainly the most efficient form of VAT in the world. The "VAT Revenue Ratio" is used by the OECD as a measure of VAT efficiency. The average in the OECD is about 50%. The least efficient is Turkey's VAT at about 30%. NZ ranks top at a little more than...
At least it's a start. An update on the South African proposal to require non-resident e-services suppliers to register for VAT. The effective date for the new rules has been stretched out to 1 June 2014 (an extension of 2 months) to allow businesses more time to...