Consultation on digital services tax

The government is consulting on the detailed design and implementation of the digital services tax (DST) announced at Budget 2018 for introduction in April 2020.

The DST is intended to be an interim response, pending global reform, to the challenges that digital businesses create for the international corporate tax system, as set out in the government’s previous position papers. This consultation looks at the detailed design and implementation of the tax ahead of its inclusion in Finance Bill 2020. This includes:

• the proposed approach to defining the business activities in scope of the tax;
• the proposed approach for determining the instances when revenues become taxable;
• the detailed design of the safe harbour;
• the effect of the DST being a deductible expense for corporate tax purposes;
• the review mechanism and the link to the international process; and
• reporting and payment.

Comments should be sent by 28 February 2019. See bit.ly/2PPVExC.