The future of indirect taxes – 2020 and beyond!

Very soon, a value added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST) will apply in all major economies of the world, with the exception of the United States – a staggering growth of a tax first introduced in France in 1954, applied only in 48 countries by 1989, and then expanded to 160 countries worldwide.

But what happens from 2020 and beyond? To answer that question, I recently wrote an article titled "The future of indirect taxes – 2020 and beyond!". In the article I predict two global megatrends which affect indirect taxes, and how each will impact global developments in the use of data and analytics. Firstly, the shift towards more comprehensive VAT and GST bases; and secondly, the shift towards a global framework for applying VAT or GST to cross-border flows of services and intangibles. Lachlan Wolfers