Business news

MINSK, 22 November (BelTA) – The state budget received Br10.7 million from the so-called Google tax in January-September 2018, BelTA learned from Svetlana Novikova, Head of the Indirect Taxation Department of the Central Office for Taxation Methodology of the Belarusian Tax and Duties Ministry.

As many as 53 foreign companies, which provide digital services to individuals and pay the VAT to the state budget, have been registered with the Belarusian tax service. The number includes Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon, Wargaming, Apple, Valve, Airbnb, Booking.com, and Uber. Those companies are residents of Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, and USA. They mostly sell rights to use digital content (games, ebooks, music, and video).

According to Svetlana Novikova, payers of the “Google tax” have to perform all the procedures remotely from getting registered with the tax service to signing the tax declaration. Their tax declarations are signed with cloud-based digital signatures, which are also sent to the taxpayers remotely.

The official said the ministry intends to continue working to improve the digital VAT payment service in 2019. Functionality of the personal area on the dedicated website will be improved.

BelTA reported earlier that as of 1 January 2018 foreign companies, which provide digital services to natural persons in Belarus, are supposed to pay VAT as large as 20%.