Through the adoption of ‘International VAT/GST Guidelines’, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has taken up the ambitious challenge of prompting international consensus on how Value Added Tax (VAT)/GST systems should be designed and implemented with the aim of reducing the risks of double taxation and unintended non-taxation created by inconsistencies in the application of VAT/GST systems to cross-border trade in goods, services and intangibles. In 2014 and 2015, more than 100 countries endorsed several chapters of these guidelines, which concern basic neutrality principles and place of taxation and collection rules for supplies of services and intangibles (thus leaving supplies of goods aside for the moment). This article retraces the context in which the International VAT/GST Guidelines started developing and provides for a detailed and critical analysis of the recently adopted chapters.
Intertax