Moldova delays e-services VAT till Apr 2020
- Dec 28, 2019 | Richard Asquith
Moldovia has postponed until April 2020 extending VAT collection obligations on foreign providers of e-services. The measure was due to come into effect on 1 January 2020.
Electronic services includes: streaming or download media; e-books; SaaS offerings; web services; e-learning; online gaming; and dating websites.
The Moldavian government proposed levying VAT on foreign providers of electronic services to its consumers. This would include registering immediately, with no annual VAT registration threshold, and charging the standard VAT rate of 20%.
Returns will be filed on a quarterly basis. The deadline for submission is the 25th of the month following the reporting period.
The move would follow the EU and global trend to impose Value Added Tax on the place of consumption – the country of residence of the final consumer. In 2015, the EU imposed the obligation to levy VAT of the consumer’s state, but simplified the VAT compliance burden for e-service compliance providers by providing a single VAT return covering all 28 jurisdictions – the Mini One-Stop-Shop return. Since then, countries such as Norway, Switzerland, Russia, South Africa, Japan and Australia have imposed their local consumption taxes on non-resident providers of digital service: downloads of media; SaaS; e-books; online gaming; dating websites; online memory/storage.
