Regulatory Analysis

Sri Lanka has amended its Value Added Tax Act to require that services sold through an electronic platform by non-resident suppliers be subject to 18% VAT. Though this amendment was initially set to come into effect October 1, 2025, Sri Lanka has delayed the implementation until April 1, 2026.

During Fiji’s National Budget Address for the upcoming fiscal year 2025–2026, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development & Statistics Professor Biman C. Prasad announced that the standard VAT rate will be reduced from 15% to 12.5%, starting August 1, 2025. The reduction is being made to help ease the cost […]

Papua New Guinea’s Internal Revenue Commission recently announced that specific goods deemed “essential” will be zero-rated for GST effective June 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. Registered suppliers and retailers are required to adjust their pricing to reflect a new zero-rate on the following essential goods: Baby diapers Tinned fish and meat Cooking oil Coffee […]

Singapore has concluded negotiations for a Digital Trade Agreement with the European Union in July 2024. The aim is to streamline digital trade by fostering cross-border data flows and regulatory cooperation. Therefore, there is a focus on e-invoicing, and both parties are committed to supporting cross-border interoperability of e-invoicing standards. This aim is already aligned with the use of Peppol […]

The Thailand Department of Revenue announced an extension to the reduced VAT rate of 7% from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025 through PR 29/2024 issued on September 17, 2024.  

Pursuant to Decree 72/2024/ND-CP as published on June 30, 2024, supplies of goods and services subject to the standard 10% VAT rate will continue to apply the temporary 8% standard VAT rate until December 31, 2024. The 2% VAT rate reduction, which was previously set to expire on June 30, 2024, has been extended by […]

Pursuant to Laos Presidential Decree No. 003/PS signed on March 19, 2024, the standard VAT rate in Laos is increased from 7% to 10%. This Decree was published in the Lao Official Gazette on March 26, 2024. The Decree, as published in the Official Gazette, can be found here (in Lao).

Pursuant to the Service Tax (Rate of Tax) (Amendment) Order 2024, effective 1 March 2024, the service tax rate is increased from 6% to 8% on all taxable services except for food and beverage preparation, telecommunications, parking provision services, and logistics, which will remain at the 6% rate. The order can be found here (in […]

Alongside the developments of the CTC e-invoice reporting mandate in Malaysia, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has become the Peppol Authority in the country. MDEC is implementing the Peppol framework in Malaysia and it will be available for the exchange of e-invoices, complementing the e-invoice reporting mandate, which will not handle the delivery of […]

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department announced that cross-border sales of goods valued at MYR500 or less are subject to 10% sales tax when sold to businesses and consumers in Malaysia effective January 1, 2024. The low value goods regulations can be found here.

Pursuant to Decree 94/2023/ND-CP as published on December 28, 2023, supplies of goods and services subject to the standard 10% VAT rate will continue to apply the temporary 8% standard VAT rate until June 30, 2024. The 2% VAT rate reduction, which was previously set to expire on December 31, 2023, has been extended by […]

Following the recent developments in China regarding the Pilot Program for e-Invoicing, whereby the program has been expanded to new provinces and cities in November 2023, the last province of Tibet has now been added to the Pilot Program for issuing fully digitalized electronic invoices (e-fapiao) among selected taxpayers. Therefore, from December 1, 2023, the […]

The National Bureau for Revenue (NBR) released an updated edition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) General Guide in November 2023. A VAT-registered individual or entity is now authorized to issue, retain, and manage VAT invoices, along with credit and debit notes, in an electronic format without NBR’s prior approval. Previously, the NBR had announced […]

Pursuant to Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill No. 30/2022, the standard GST rate in Singapore is increasing to 9% effective January 1, 2024. The Bill can be found here.

The Saudi Arabian Tax and Customs Authority, ZATCA, announced the ninth wave of Phase 2 of e-invoicing. The ninth wave covers taxpayers with at least SAR 30 million (app. USD 8 million) revenue subject to VAT for 2021 or 2022. Taxpayers within this group are expected to integrate as of 1 June 2024. Phase 2 […]

The Pilot Program for issuing fully digitized electronic invoices (e-fapiao) has been expanded to the new provinces and cities: Anhui, Beijing, Guizhou, Hunan, Ningxia, Qinghai and Shandong. According to the announcements published by the tax authorities in October 2023, selected taxpayers in these provinces and cities, will be able to issue fully digitized e-fapiao. In […]

In the Forum of Tax Administration held in October 2023 in Singapore, the government confirmed they will adopt InvoiceNow, the national e-invoicing framework based on the Peppol network as the mandatory framework for B2G transactions in the country. Recently, testing of a 5-corner instead of the existing 4-corner model as the InvoiceNow Peppol exchange model […]

Israel is implementing a Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC) regime which was initially scheduled to roll out on January 1, 2024. On October 23, 2023, the Israeli Tax Authority (ITA) announced that the timeline has been extended to offer businesses more time to complete their technological development. According to the announcement, the ITA will allow deduction […]