Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffR
South Africa have already done this. Foreign companies selling into South Africa charge South African VAT. So there shouldn't be any reason New Zealand couldn't do it too.
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This is something which is being bandied about ad infinitum as if the final solution has been found. Often with the meaning they are doing it we should too. While those words are now received opinion it is actually very hard to find out how and if it is actually working.
My understanding is that because it cannot be enforced in law outside of South Africa's borders (after all South African law does not apply to the rest of the world - I don't know how big their navy is but at one time it was said that they had nuclear weapons
) remitting of VAT by foreign suppliers of digital products is essentially VOLUNTARY (what a giggle).
Look for the enabling regulation LAPD-LSec-Reg-2014-03 - Regulation R221 GG 37489 28 March 2014 and there is no method of collection apart from saying that foreign suppliers have to pay VAT on the named digital products.
Last I heard there were less than 100 foreign suppliers who had volunteered (it has been in effect since April Fools Day last year). One wonders if there was some other unrelated part of their operations in South Africa which enabled the SA Government to threaten to kneecap them if they did not "volunteer". Countries that use such coercion are essentially of a despotic nature.