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Value Added Tax (VAT; also known as Goods and Services Tax, under the acronym GST in a number of OECD countries) has become a major source of revenue for governments around the world. Some 165 countries operated a VAT at the time of the completion of the International VAT/GST Guidelines in 2016, more than twice as many as 25 years before. As VAT continued to spread across the world, international trade in goods and services has also expanded rapidly in an increasingly globalised economy. One consequence of these developments has been the greater interaction between VAT systems, along with growing risks of double taxation and unintended non-taxation in the absence of international VAT co-ordination.

The International VAT/GST Guidelines now present a set of internationally agreed standards and recommended approaches to address the issues that arise from the uncoordinated application of national VAT systems in the context of international trade. They focus in particular on trade in services and intangibles, which poses increasingly important challenges for the design and operation of VAT systems worldwide. They notably include the recommended principles and mechanisms to address the challenges for the collection of VAT on cross-border sales of digital products that had been identified in the context of the OECD/G20 Project on Base and Erosion and Profit Shifting (the BEPS Project).

These Guidelines were adopted as a Recommendation by the Council of the OECD in September 2016.

Consumption Tax Trends provides information on Value Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax (VAT/GST) and excise duty rates in OECD member countries. It also contains information about indirect tax topics such as international aspects of VAT/GST developments and the efficiency of this tax. It also describes a range of taxation provisions such as the taxation of motor vehicles, tobacco and alcoholic beverages.

The spread of the digital economy poses challenges for international taxation. This report sets out an analysis of these tax challenges.  It notes that because the digital economy is increasingly becoming the economy itself, it would not be feasible to ring-fence the digital economy from the rest of the economy for tax purposes. The report notes, however, that certain business models and key features of the digital economy may exacerbate BEPS risks, and shows the expected impact of measures developed across the BEPS Project on these risks.  The report also describes rules and implementation mechanisms to enable efficient collection of value-added tax (VAT) in the country of the consumer in cross-border business-to-consumer transactions, which will help level the playing field between foreign and domestic suppliers. The report also discusses and analyses options to deal with the broader tax challenges raised by the digital economy, noting the need for monitoring developments in the digital economy over time.