Compliance Services

The past 2 years have demonstrated a direct correlation between significant world events and the fiscal measures countries enact. This has been particularly notable with the coronavirus pandemic but is also becoming more apparent with recent events in Ukraine.
We’ve previously seen countries such as Romania taking measures to ensure that all goods and services provided to persons affected by the war will not be subject to VAT.
Poland is adopting multiple similar measures. The Polish National foundation of Tax Advisors has stressed that no public associations will benefit from any tax relief on aid from Ukraine.
Poland is also considering the revision of a current decree, which would mean a 0% VAT rate would be applied to free-of charge deliveries of goods (or a supply of services) which would be aimed at assisting victims of Ukraine’s armed conflict.
This would affect all deliveries / supplies made between 24 February 2022 and 30 June 2022, if approved by the Polish Parliament.
We can expect to see many countries adopting similar measures, particularly bordering countries in close proximity to the conflict.

The Polish Ministry of Finance has permitted the taxation of any financial services that businesses provide from 1st January 2022.
The main effect of this is that many businesses will be able to deduct VAT from goods / services purchased, thus providing a financial benefit. Taxation of financial services is optional rather than mandatory.
Financial services for retail clients are still exempt- meaning that any consumers should not see an increase in prices.

Poland introduced the split payment mechanism in 2019.
The split payment mechanism is where VAT is not paid together with the net amount into the applicable bank account. Rather, the VAT is placed into a separate dedicated bank account for the VAT.
In November 2019, Tungsten Network enabled a feature allowing suppliers to indicate whether the invoice is subject to the split payment mechanism in Poland.
The European Commission had granted Poland the right to mandate split payments until the end of February 2022. However, the European Commission has granted permission to extend the split payment mechanism beyond 1st March 2022, for a period of 3 years.
In many respects, the split payment mechanism has the same underlying aims as the upcoming Polish e-invoicing mandate- to reduce the VAT gap, as the mechanism provides a means of certainty that the VAT has been paid. The extension of the split payment mechanism therefore serves to further reduce the VAT gap in Poland.

As part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreement signed in 2016, the GCC member states agreed to a harmonized value-added tax framework. The Kuwaiti government initially planned to adopt the VAT system by 2021 but delayed the date to 2023. A further postponement could, however, be possible in view of the rising oil price and high inflation in the country.

Instead of the VAT system, the Government is pursuing the idea of implementing a selective taxation, which will apply on tobacco and related products, soft and sweetened drinks, luxury goods such as watches, jewellery, and precious stones as well as cars and yachts. The selective tax rate will range from 10 to 25% and is estimated to bring approximately 500 million dinars annually for the government when implemented.

In March 2022, the goods and services tax (GST) revenue collected was ₹1.42 lakh crore ($18.93Bn), the highest amount since the new taxation system was implemented in India. Ministry of finance said in a statement that GST revenues for March 2022 are 15% higher than the same month last year and 46% higher than March 2020. These results show how powerful Continuous Transaction Controls (CTC) can be from a tax collection perspective.

Together with economic recovery, anti-evasion activities, especially action against fake billers have contributed to the enhanced GST, said the government.

Back in 2018, Australia and New Zealand government signed the Trans-Tasman Electronic Invoicing Arrangement, with the objective to create and maintain a common Australia and New Zealand e-invoicing approach, so to improve invoicing productivity and reduce the costs of doing business for both governments. One year later, it was officially announced that both governments will adopt PEPPOL standards in the e-invoicing implementation.

Following Australia’s lead, New Zealand has also made the first step towards mandating B2G e-invoicing. Starting from March 31, 2022, large businesses and government organizations must begin receiving PEPPOL e-invoices in New Zealand. To exchange e-invoices between suppliers and buyers, businesses must have a PEPPOL access point and a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN). The invoice format should follow PEPPOL XML standard (PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0) and must be archived for 7 years.

According to the New Zealand government, the country would save approximately $4.4 billion by implementing e-invoicing in business-to-business over the next decade. Therefore, the government is attracting Small-Medium businesses to use PEPPOL e-invoicing by offering a 10-day payment term for all e-invoices.

The National Bureau for Revenue’s (NBR) of Bahrain has introduced the “Digital Stamps” Scheme in line with its commitment to ensure the effective implementation of Excise, with the aim of tracking excise goods from the manufacturing stage to the point of consumption. As stated by NBR, the scheme will be implemented in phases:
• From 15 May 2022, all imported cigarette products that arrive in the Kingdom must have a digital stamp
• From 14 August 2022, cigarette products sold in local markets must have digital stamps

The registration for the Digital Stamps Scheme is required by the Excise payers who import cigarette products and their relevant supply chain organisations from production until the release of the products to the local market in Bahrain.

In the past few months, many European countries have been adopting a range of fiscal measures considering growing inflation. Concerns around inflation have however extend beyond Europe’s borders. Cuba has in response to the growing inflation crisis declared a 10% tax on retail food sales.

This took effect on 8th February 2022 and target self-employed people and small and medium-sized companies in the retail food sector.

The VAT rate for the tourism sector in Ecuador has been reduced from 12% to 8%, from February 26 2022 until 1 March 2022, and from April 15 to April 17 2022.

Further to rising inflation in the country, Turkey has reduced the VAT rate on basic food products from 8% to 1%.