Richard Asquith

💥 Romania President today signs 2% VAT rise 1 Aug 2025

Happy weekend all lovers of VAT 😍

Highly unlikely Italian VAT assessments on social media platforms will stand. Impossible to calculate - and is any tax owed to Italy or the US?

But does reflect global tax rules are soooo 20th Century

A UK wealth tax sounds simple: "tax the super‑rich, fund public services"

But it's not.

Our 16,000 word deep‑dive shows revenues are fragile, it puts growth, investment and jobs at risk, and there's no revenue before 2029.

Here’s the evidence:

EU budget 2028-2034 The main aspects of the EU’s long-term budget for 2028-2034, its revenue and spending areas, as well as factsheets on key aspects are available on this page.

Some of the legal proposals for the next EU multi-year budget are now published - own resources and MFF proposals (scroll down) - commission.europa.eu/strategy-and...

UK Labour to widen VAT base at 2025 Budget? - vatcalc.com The UK's Chancellor may opt at this late-October's 2025 budget to raise much-needed funding by changes to the nil-rating and reduced 5% rates.  Fresh debate

How to raise VAT when you said you wouldn't www.vatcalc.com/uk/uk-labour...

Putin is running a classic war economy, pumped up on defence spending. Mirroring late 1930s Nazi model that needs continuing aggressive expansion or faces collapse

EU VAT Committee disagrees with Italy's Meta, X & LinkedIn barter VAT stance - vatcalc.com On 14 May 2025, EU's VAT Committee disagreed with Italy's interpretation of the right to assess VAT on the 'barter' exchange of free use of digital social

EU rejects Italian tax speculative VAT assessments on free social media platform services www.vatcalc.com/italy/italy-...

Outrageous no Bob Paisley

Germany 10% Digital Services Tax proposal - vatcalc.com The new Merz Federal government is considering a 10% levy on large digital platforms such as Google and Meta. In the current global tax regime, such digital

Germany comes out punching: drawing-up 10% Digital Services Tax. In Feb, President Trump launched review of such discriminatory taxes, with tariff threat www.vatcalc.com/germany/germ...

EU proposes €2 e-commerce import handling fee - vatcalc.com As part of the 2028 EU Customs reform negotiations, the European Commission has issued an informal paper proposing a €2 customs administration charge on

This will nearly double the price of my next stylish pair of pants www.vatcalc.com/eu/eu-mulls-...

Italy Meta, X & LinkedIn barter VAT question to EU VAT Committee - vatcalc.com 16 April 2025: Italy has requested from the VAT Committee (the EU's non-binding advisory group) an opinion on the VAT liabilities on 'free' social media

EU's to review Italy's questions on LinkedIn, X & Meta/Facebook VAT liabilities on 'free' access to their platforms in exchange (barter) for users' data www.vatcalc.com/italy/italy-...

Artificial Intelligence picks up millions in VAT fraud - vatcalc.com Malta has confirmed that in 2024 it collected an impressive €650 million more in tax compared to the previous year. Most of this increase was directly

#AI is mopping-up VAT fraud www.vatcalc.com/malta/artifi...

EU may revive Digital Services Tax proposal - vatcalc.com The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has raised the prospect of restarting discussions between the EU 27 member states on a pan-EU 3%

EU threatens to reheat Digital Services Tax proposal as leverage to Trump tariffs. (Although I’m not sure of mechanism? ‘Enhanced Cooperation’? www.vatcalc.com/eu/european-...

Happy 71st Birthday to VAT - vatcalc.com Value Added Tax turns 71 today, 10th April 2025.  It was first introduced in April 1954 in the French colony of Ivory Coast. Then VAT was implemented in

🥳 🎉 Happy b'day VAT! It's had one or two detractors this year; but still looks wonderful for its age in 175 countries www.vatcalc.com/uncategorize...

Is there opp for U.K. (and others) to displace US exporters in rest of world as trade lines redrawn?

Eat my shorts, @explaintrade.com

Happy weekend all VAT lovers 😍

Fun fact: organised US businesses don’t actually have to ever pay import VAT. UK & most EU states offer postponed VAT scheme where cash never handed over. Just bit of reporting in their VAT return

He should definitely be doing bingo number calls …duck and dive autos at 25

Are Digital Services Taxes good taxes? - vatcalc.com Digital Services Taxes are the newest, and possible to newest extinct, class of taxation. President Trump signed in February an order to investigate

Digital Service Taxes - closing offshore tax loophole or illegal service import tariffs in disguise? www.vatcalc.com/global/are-d...

Import VAT - avoid payment via Postponed VAT Accounting - vatcalc.com Normally, import VAT on goods coming into a country is paid over at customs with any duties or tariffs. The VAT may then be recovered via the importer’s next

Fun fact: US businesses don't even have to pay import VAT. Many countries offer non-EU business imports facility to not pay a cent www.vatcalc.com/global/impor...

Import VAT - avoid payment via Postponed VAT Accounting - vatcalc.com Normally, import VAT on goods coming into a country is paid over at customs with any duties or tariffs. The VAT may then be recovered via the importer’s next

Fun fact: US firms don’t even have to pay import VAT www.vatcalc.com/global/impor...

The Disappearances Begin An old tactic finds a new target

open.substack.com/pub/jasquith...

I do have some sympathy for fiscal devaluation argument from US. 175 countries with VAT use it to subsidise direct tax (payroll and corp taxes) cuts to boost their exports

Solution would be for US to adopt VAT. But we all know that’s never going to happen

£100k tax cliff becoming huge headache in tech sector. As tech venture, we’re having to restructure packages to attract / retain mid-career brightest talent that’ll keep us competitive in global market

UK Bolt ride-hailing wins TOMS VAT hearing - vatcalc.com A UK's Upper Tribunal has 24 March 2025 rejected HMRC's appeal to block ride sharer Bolt from using TOMS. The case centred on whether Bolt’s app-based

Bolt ride-sharing today wins VAT ruling. Could spill over to gig employment taxes obligations www.vatcalc.com/united-kingd...

Belgium 3% DST by 2027 - vatcalc.com Belgium's new coaltion government included a commitment to introduce a 3% Digital Services Tax (DST) by 2027. This was contained within ‘Federal Coalition

Whilst not ideal tax (Trump pulled out of OECD renegotiation), telling that other Europeans stepping up their DST’s www.vatcalc.com/belgium/belg....

Because digital services may be provided offshore, direct to, so bypasses corporate income tax PE that goods & trad services subject to. If we allow that, the tax base erodes (hospitals, errr… extra tanks)

Again, I’m not DST cheerleader. My point is there’s a wider issue to debate

I’d agree DST’s are badly designed taxes; but they’re reaction to 20th Century global tax regime designed to tax cross-border goods. Foreign Digital service providers enjoy huge tax loophole. U.S. (quietly supported by China) walked out in Jan on OECD talks to resolve

UK to limit Digital Services Tax under US pressure - vatcalc.com The UK government is reviewing its Digital Services Tax (DST) as it seeks to persuade the Trump administration not to impose new tariffs on the UK. Ministers

UK ministers with Peter Mandelson scramble for Digital Services Tax compromise to avoid US retaliatory tariffs www.vatcalc.com/united-kingd...