Tax & Accounting Blog

The European Commission (“Commission”) is taking France and Luxembourg to court for applying reduced VAT rates to the sale of electronic books (“e-books”). Both countries have been applying a reduced VAT rate to supplies of e-books since January 2012. The rate is 7% in France and 3% in Luxembourg. Although printed books are eligible for … Read More

It is being reported that the controversial value added tax (VAT) will not be implemented in the Turks & Caicos on 1 April as had been planned. The decision by the United Kingdom (U.K.) was announced in a letter on 25 February by Mark Simmonds , the UK’s Minister for the Overseas Territories, and Alan Duncan, … Read More

On 7 February it was announced that the 2013 Finance Bill will be published on 28 March following the 2013 Budget statement on 20 March. The Explanatory notes will be available on the HM Treasury website after that date. HMRC will be posting updates HERE. In other U.K. news there has been quite a … Read More

On 14 February the Latvian Parliament rejected a proposal to apply a 5% reduced rate to electricity, gas, heating and water supplies for domestic use. The rate would have gone into effect by 1 June of this year. … Read More

In its 2012/13 Budget Communication, the Government of the Bahamas announced a fundamental reform of the tax system. Part of these reforms would include the introduction of a Value Added Tax (VAT) as of 1 July 2014. The proposed VAT would be a 15% VAT that would apply to a broad range of goods and … Read More

Switzerland is moving forward with plans to reform its VAT system. The Swiss Federal Council (the executive) recently responded with a “complementary message” to the mandate given to it by the Swiss National Council (the lower house of parliament), requesting that plans be drawn up for a new VAT model consisting of two tax rates rather than … Read More