E-commerce tax: not in Budget, but on the horizon

MUCH Of this week's news coverage has focused on the measures announced on Monday in Singapore's Budget 2019; but, equally newsworthy is what was not included: e-commerce tax.

Its exclusion from this year's Budget - when it was so highly anticipated - is telling; yet the tax challenges arising from the digital economy are not unique to Singapore. Attempting to ring-fence the digital economy, while preserving the value creation of businesses, is a complex struggle that economies around the world are grappling with, and also the subject of current debate within the OECD.

The imposition of an e-commerce tax in Singapore was covered by Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat in his Budget speech last year, when he said Singapore would implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) on imported services with effect from Jan 1, 2020, to "make sure that (its) tax system remains fair and resilient in a digital economy".