The VAT Digital Toolkit for Asia-Pacific (APAC) aims to assist tax authorities in the APAC region with the design and implementation of reform to ensure the effective collection of value added taxes (VAT) on e-commerce activities.
APAC is the largest e-commerce region in the world. VAT is a crucial source of tax revenue for the region. The challenges to collect VAT on the continuously growing e-commerce sales create increasingly important pressures for VAT regimes worldwide. These challenges relate to VAT collection on the booming sales of online services and digital products to private consumers (“apps”, streaming, gaming, ride-hailing, etc.) and on online sales of low-value imported goods, often by foreign merchants. VAT is often not levied effectively on these sales under existing rules.
This Toolkit provides detailed guidance for the implementation of a comprehensive VAT strategy directed at all types of e-commerce. It is designed to help governments secure important VAT revenues and to ensure a level playing field between brick-and-mortar retailers and foreign online merchants.
This Toolkit has been produced by the OECD in partnership with the World Bank Group. This partnership also includes editions for Latin America and the Caribbean and for Africa. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has contributed considerably as regional partner for the APAC region.
Source: OECD
