Taxing the Bull by the Horns: Reforming Australia’s Cross-Border GST Rules

Australian Tax Forum, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2009

Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 09/80

50 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2009 Last revised: 7 Oct 2009

See all articles by Rebecca Millar

Rebecca Millar

The University of Sydney - Faculty of Law

Date Written: September 10, 2009

Abstract

This paper critically evaluates the legal design of Australia’s GST (a value added tax) in light of recent OECD work on the consumption tax treatment of cross-border transactions. An emerging consensus from the OECD suggests that, for business to business supplies, consumption taxes should use a ‘Main Rule’ that imposes tax at the location of the customer. A strong preference for collecting the tax from the customer using the reverse charge mechanism is also expressed. A careful consideration of Australia’s place of taxation rules for ‘inbound’, ‘outbound’, ‘wholly domestic’, and ‘wholly foreign’ transactions, and their interaction with the rules on input tax credit entitlements, reveals that Australia does indeed use such a Main Rule. Following a hybrid approach between the European VAT model (for goods) and the New Zealand GST model (for services), the Australian GST is more strongly destination-based than both the European VAT and the New Zealand GST, with which it is compared. However, in eschewing a widespread use of the reverse charge mechanism and requiring the registration of non-residents, the law is clearly overly-inclusive of non-resident suppliers, without necessarily more effectively taxing consumption by domestic consumers, which is the ultimate objective of the tax. The paper therefore ends with suggestions for reform.

Keywords: VAT, GST, value added tax, goods and services tax, consumption tax, place of supply, place of taxation, zero-rating, GST-free, cross-border transactions, OECD, Australia

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K34

Suggested Citation

Millar, Rebecca Mescal, Taxing the Bull by the Horns: Reforming Australia’s Cross-Border GST Rules (September 10, 2009). Australian Tax Forum, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2009, Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 09/80, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1471114

Rebecca Mescal Millar (Contact Author)

The University of Sydney - Faculty of Law ( email )

New Law Building, F10
The University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia

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