UN Advances Global VAT and GST Work Programme amid OECD Overlap; Global Tax Policy

• The UN Tax Committee approved a five-track VAT/GST work programme focused on major indirect tax challenges, especially for developing economies and digitalised VAT administration.
• The largest workstream covers VAT in the digital economy, including cross-border digital and remote services, e-commerce in goods, and possible VAT collection responsibilities for digital platforms.
• Another workstream will address VAT fraud, refund delays, and SME compliance, including false invoices, input VAT fraud, and mechanisms to improve refund administration.
• The programme also covers cross-border VAT dispute prevention and resolution, VAT treatment of financial services/FinTech/crypto, and the distributional impact of VAT on vulnerable households, including targeted alternatives to reduced rates and exemptions.
• The guidance will be nonbinding, but may become an influential reference point for countries modernizing VAT systems; the article notes overlap with OECD VAT work.

Source: vatcalc.com

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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