Canada rejects 5% GST on electronic services

Canada has rejected introducing 5% federal Goods & Services Tax on electronic services to consumers such as: streaming films and music; online TV and radio; e-books, software and apps; subscriptions to member websites; and electronic journals and newspapers.  The biggest providers of these are non-resident, including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google.

The tax was proposed by a parliamentary committee, but vetoed this month by the ruling Liberal party on the basis that it had a tax lowering public mandate.

In recent years, the 28 EU states, Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and more have all imposed local VAT on sales of digital services to their consumers.

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