GST treatment of electronic commerce: comparing the Singaporean and Australian approaches

This article analyses the Australian and Singaporean indirect tax systems as they apply to electronic commerce (e-commerce), specifically focusing on mechanisms for taxation of cross-border transactions. Both countries have similar goods and services tax (GST) mechanisms (broad base, low rate and limited exemptions), and at the same time somewhat different economic determinants of tax policy (size of the economy, dependence on foreign trade, etc). Therefore, it is considered useful to assess how these countries adapt their indirect tax systems to digitalisation of the economy. Using the broader Australian and Singaporean e-commerce taxation systems as points of reference, the article identifies a set of criteria, or qualities (including, for example, neutrality and fairness), for an efficient system of e-commerce taxation, and evaluates the experience and measures in those two countries against these criteria.