Die invloed van elektroniese handel op die toepaslikheid van die Wet op Belasting op Toegevoegde Waarde, no. 89 van 1991

[摘要] The advent of the internet made it possible to conduct business in a different manner- electronically. Electronic commerce enables residents and vendors to transact withresidents and vendors of any other country (jurisdiction) at any time, making theworld indeed a smaller place.Electronic commerce has, however, raised many questions internationally.Determining the effect of such transactions on the tax take of a country is of greatimportance to a government. The South African Revenue Service adjusted theIncome Tax Act in order to take globalisation into account in accordance withinternational direction. In contrast, no changes have been suggested for the indirecttaxation, namely value added tax.Electronic commerce were not contemplated when the Value-Added Tax Act wasintroduced in 1991. The charging section (section 7 of the mentioned act) providesthat a transaction will be taxed in South Africa on the supply of goods or services, onthe import of goods and on the supply of an imported service. In traditional businessthe place of supply was easy to define because a pure consumption test could beapplied: namely that the place of supply is where the goods or services have beenconsumed. Today this rule will put an enormous compliance burden on vendors sincethe physical place of consumption in electronic commerce is not that obvious (Masters, 2001). Not only must the precise place of supply be determined but thevendor also has to value the supply in multiple jurisdictions.This study highlights the applicable sections of the Value-Added Tax Act and appliesit to electronic commerce in order to determine if the existing legislation should bemodernised or if parts of it needs to be re-written.The following concepts will be considered:• Place of supply in order to determine the jurisdiction where tax must becharged.• Value of supply to determine the value on which tax must be charged.• Vendor to determine which entities, South African or otherwise, have toregister for VAT in South Africa.• Goods.• Services to consider goods and services of digital content.The international initiatives regarding the application of consumption tax, under theleadership of the Fiscal Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operationand Development, were taken into account in the study of any required amendmentsto sections of the Value-Added Tax Act. A group, 'The Consumption Tax TechnicalAdvisory Group, was established in January 1999 by the OECD to consult withbusiness and non-members on the implementation of consumption tax on electroniccommerce transactions. The composition of the group is representative of the maintrading nations in the world, but also includes smaller countries, non-members andprivate sector participants. It includes Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Commission. Considering the globalcomposition of the group this study will focus on the initiatives of the OECD and it isnot deemed necessary to investigate the initiatives of individual countries. The studywill however consider the research and initiatives of South Africa's biggestcommercial partner, the European Union (OECD, 2004a: 285).The South African initiatives regarding electronic commerce include the Green Paperon Electronic Commerce released by the Department of Communication inNovember 2000 and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Actpromulgated on 26 June 2002. The legislation does not address the tax implicationof electronic commerce but in chapter 4 of the mentioned green paper it wasdiscussed by the legislators.There is growing international pressure to lower corporate income tax rates. As thetax base erodes in this area other sources, possibly consumer taxation, must befound to meet the shortfalls (Masters, 2001).It is the aim of this study to show that the present Value-Added Tax Act is in need ofmodernisation in order to take into account the wide range of electronic commercetransactions.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University