VAT Focus — Draft OECD VAT/GST Guidelines

Spead Read: The OECD released the draft VAT/GST Guidelines for public consultation in February 2010. These draft Guidelines propose that the place of taxation of internationally traded services or intangibles is the location of the customer. The parties to a supply are normally determined by a 'business agreement', which is a non-legal concept much broader than a written contract. The draft covers business-to-business supplies between single location entities. It assumes that all supplies are legitimate and with economic substance and that there is no artificial tax avoidance or tax minimisation taking place. These draft Guidelines will be expanded to cover supplies between entities with multiple locations.