This article gives an overview of the current VAT treatment in the EU of digital donloads of films, audio, text, and other media provided by established as well as non-established companies to taxable and non-taxable persons. Four specific issues are discussed; the classification of electronically supplied services, an overview of who may be regarded as a taxable person, the definition of fixed establishment and where electronically supplied services are deemed to be supplied. Proposed changes of the VAT treatment for established companies and their possible effects are also evaluated in relation to the last issue.

Consumption taxes such as a value added tax (VAT) or a goods and services tax (GST) is an important revenue source for several countries, not least within the European Union (EU) which has had a harmonized VAT since the end of the 1960s. The intention of consumption taxation is to tax expenditures made by persons for their private purposes, i.e. the tax burden is carried by the final consumer.

In the middle of the 20^th century the Internet opened up the possibility for electronic commerce. Many problems arise when the rapid evolution of techniques related to e-commerce is mixed with the objective of consumption taxation, particularly in cross-border supplies to consumers. This study focuses on the cross-border consumption taxation on digital supplies in business to consumer e-commerce from an international coordination perspective.

The study presented in this book covers a comparative study of EC VAT, Australian GST and Canadian GST concerning how digital supplies are taxed in business to consumer cross-border supplies. It particularly focuses on if there are risks for double taxation and unintentional non-taxation and identifying the causes for such cases. In addition the possible remedies for double taxation and unintentional non-taxation are discussed. The findings in the study are evaluated based on rationality, which refers to if the consumption taxation upholds the principles that are part of the OECD, Ottawa Taxation Framework Conditions. The principles that are part of the Framework Conditions are; neutrality, efficiency, certainty and simplicity, effectiveness and fairness and flexibility.

This article discusses if EU value added tax (VAT) can be imposed on unlawful digital supplies by evaluating applicable criteria developed by the Court of Justice (COJ). Unlawful digital supplies are delimited to cover trade with digital materials that are copyright protected and exchanged through peer-to-peer networks without the permission of the copyright holder. The criteria that are evaluated for imposing EU VAT on these unlawful supplies covers the scope of VAT, whether the supplies can be seen as consumption, identification of the taxable supplier and if the supplies can be considered as taxable. The main difficulties with deciding if EU VAT can be imposed on unlawful digital supplies is in the argumentation used by the COJ in primarily two cases. The difficulties are, first, based on the Hong Kong Trade case, where the COJ interprets the scope of economic activity as not covering services supplied free of charge. Second, in the Tolsma case, the COJ discusses the need of a direct link establishing if there is a taxable transaction. For imposing EU VAT on unlawful digital supplies, the market place connecting the users and the organization providing the market place can rather be considered as an indirect link than a direct link establishing a legal relationship.

Den ökade gränsöverskridanden handeln med framförallt tjänster har lett till problem med dubbelbeskattning och icke-beskattning på mervärdesskatteområdet i en allt större utsträckning. Inom OECD pågår arbete med att identifiera orsaker till problemen samt att försöka koordinera mervärdesskatten internationellt eftersom dubbelbeskattningsavtal saknas. I februari i år presenterades en bearbetning av de internationella riktlinjer som utgör kärnan i arbetet. Materialet är högst välkommet eftersom det ursprungliga materialet snarare presenterade en struktur än genomarbetade riktlinjer. Mycket arbete kvarstår dock, innan större slutsatser kan dras om vilka effekter riktlinjerna på mervärdesskatteområdet kan få, vilket bör has i åtanke. Den här artikeln presenterar de större dragen i det material som presenterades i februari i år.

Skatterättsnämnden meddelade ett förhandsbesked den 29 december 2008 gällande elektroniskt tillhandahållna tjänster och huruvida dessa skall beläggas med svensk mervärdesskatt. Avgörandet berör framförallt frågan ombestämning av omsättningsland baserat på huruvida fast etableringsställe föreligger i Sverige.