Blog
During the past couple of months a number of significant changes have seemingly unnoticed entered into force in Estonia. Interestingly enough, Estonia seems to be the first EU Member State to by law require XML format for the exchange of B2B e-invoices, or rather require taxpayers to issue e-invoices using “machine-processable formats”. Only taxpayers who […]
Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and the VAT Gap On February 22, 2017 the European Commission published its annual reports on the economic and social situation in Member States, the European Semester Winter Package. The country reports for Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia all took note of VAT gaps well over the European average. The reports also noted […]
Sovos recently partnered with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to host an informative webinar detailing Affordable Care Act replacements and corrections. The webinar was a success for everyone involved and we received a number of important and thought-provoking questions. Two of our tax gurus, John Kreger and Gerry Nelligan, provided answers to some […]
The four bills that would implement the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India have taken their first step towards enactment, passing India’s lower house of parliament (the Lok Sabha) on March 29, 2017. The State of Jammu and Kashmir is notably excluded from the scope of one of the bills, the Integrated Goods […]
On March 22, 2017, Saskatchewan, Canada announced its annual budget. The changes made to their sales tax were massive and virtually immediate. The most notable was a standard rate increase (effective at midnight that night) from 5.0% to 6.0%. Further, effective April 1 Saskatchewan’s exemptions for children’s clothing, real property services and certain food items […]
On March 29, 2017 the Virginia Governor signed legislation that will exempt the sale of parts and engines used in the maintenance, repair or reconditioning of any manned or unmanned aircraft system. However, as a compromise measure intended to limit the fiscal impact of the new exemption, the rule will not come into effect until […]
The Utah Governor recently signed Senate Bill 16 into law. The law creates a new sales tax exemption for the service of cleaning or washing the exterior of a vehicle, beginning on July 1, 2017. However, an important exception exists. If the service includes any charges related to cleaning the interior of the vehicle, then […]
Recent VAT Decisions The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recently published two decisions related to VAT: In Case C-592/15 (British Film Institute), published February 15, 2017, the CJEU held that Member States have discretion to determine the scope of an exemption for “certain cultural services and goods closely linked thereto supplied […]
The Employer Mandate — along with all associated reporting obligations and penalties — will live on throughout Tax Year 2017, and likely beyond. This news emerged in the wake of the showdown between the recently introduced American Health Care Act and the incumbent Affordable Care Act. The short-lived AHCA legislation came to an anticlimactic end […]
The Brazilian government is considering several proposals to reform their indirect tax system, widely considered to be one of the most complex in the world. One such proposal is being crafted by the Special Commission on Tax Reform within the Chamber of Representatives. The Commission is proposing the introduction of a value added tax to […]
The Brazilian government is considering several proposals to reform their indirect tax system, widely considered to be one of the most complex in the world. One of those proposals, offered by the Brazilian President, suggests a significant tax overhaul to take place over multiple stages. Stage 1, slated for June, would involve a simplification of […]
The United Kingdom took the long-anticipated first formal step towards officially leaving the European Union when on March 29, the UK Envoy to the EU hand delivered the “Article 50 Letter” to the EU Council President. As of today, the clock begins ticking on a 2 year window in which the UK can negotiate its […]
Brazil’s tax authority, SEFAZ, recently announced new specifications for its e-invoicing program, set to take effect later this year. This is the first new release in two years for Nota Fiscal (NFe), and version 4.0 presents several challenges – both operational and technical – for multinationals in Brazil. With this new version in place, the […]
Amazon sellers will now have to collect and remit sales tax in every state in which it is required. What are the business implications? Amazon completed its 180-degree turn on sales tax policy this week, agreeing to voluntarily collect sales and use tax in every state that imposes such requirements. While this development does not […]
Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) legislation is constantly evolving worldwide as the standard is rolled out around the world. The Sovos research team continually monitors new regulations and updates across the globe and publishes them in our Taxport Compass tool. Here are some important changes that occurred in recent weeks: Germany Releases Infobriefs for FATCA […]
There is much speculation about the potential of blockchain in the context of B2B automation. This speculation normally focuses on open or public blockchains, which are distributed databases where different types of transactions can be securely recorded and transparently verified by all parties without depending on a trusted third party. The scheme was first used […]
As governments across Latin America continue to refine their e-invoicing and fiscal reporting processes to improve the accuracy of transaction-level insights, change has become the norm in this region. Ecuador is no exception, announcing in 2015 that it would move to an offline e-invoicing model to help streamline compliance for enterprises by providing a buffer […]
In part I of this three-part blog series, we examine how Spain is implementing electronic invoicing to better control the VAT return process. Over the course of the last decade, there has been a huge shift in the way countries collect value-added tax (VAT). Tax revenue agencies are no longer waiting for taxpayers to fill […]