Trinidad and Tobago to Tax Foreign Digital Services with New VAT System

• Trinidad and Tobago plans to impose VAT on digital services supplied by non-resident companies, requiring a new simplified registration/collection system for foreign suppliers to register, collect, and remit VAT electronically.
• The digital VAT measure may cover digital content, subscriptions, cloud services, web hosting, online advertising, and related charges; EY notes a reverse-charge model could instead be used for B2B imports of services.
• The budget proposes limiting carried-forward tax losses to 75% of chargeable profits each year, expected to raise $430 million.
• It also proposes denying deductions for expenses incurred in earning exempt income, expected to raise $75 million, and extending withholding tax to remote management, technical, and other prescribed services provided by non-residents.
• Moving selected items from zero-rated to VAT-exempt status could increase business costs because input VAT would no longer be recoverable.

Source: guardian.co.tt

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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