On Determining the List of Electronic Services for Value Added Tax Purposes

Examining Russia’s experience and the experience of some foreign countries, the paper considers ways to determine the services provided by foreign suppliers in electronic form that are subject to VAT, namely, establishing a common definition of services in electronic form, fixing their specific list, a combination of these two options. The paper analyzes in detail the specific lists of services classified as electronic services (positive lists) and lists of services excluded from the list of services in electronic form (negative lists) used in a number of countries. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes about the impossibility of forming an exhaustive list of services in electronic form (due to their diversity, the rapid development of technologies in the field of electronic commerce, the potential increase in the number of tax disputes, the disparity of services in electronic form in different countries), as well as the preference for consolidating the legislation a common definition of electronic services and their open indicative list.

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