What changed
Mauritius — VAT: e-books zero-rated, and the salt promise is not in the Act
The Finance Act 2026 (Act No. 14 of 2026) was passed on 31 July, assented to on 12 August and gazetted on 13 August 2026. Section 25(s) inserts the words “electronic books,” after “printed books,” in item 2(i) of the Fifth Schedule to the Value Added Tax Act — the schedule of zero-rated supplies given effect by section 11 — so electronic books are now zero-rated. The same paragraph re-classifies atlases from H.S. Code 4905.91.10 to 4905.20.10. Common salt does not appear anywhere in the Act. (National Assembly of Mauritius)
What it means: This corrects what we reported in June, in both directions. The salt zero-rating we listed as proposed simply did not survive into law. E-books did — but by a better route than the exemption that was trailed: zero-rating keeps input VAT recoverable, where exemption would have stranded it. If you read our June issue and modelled e-books as exempt, the answer changes.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Mauritius — VAT: the local tax representative is gone, and a threshold arrives
The same Act enacts the digital-services easing trailed in the 2026-2027 Budget. Section 25(f) repeals subsections (2) and (5) of section 14A and replaces “The tax representative appointed under subsection (2)” in subsection (3) with “The foreign supplier”, removing the requirement for a foreign supplier to appoint a local VAT representative. Section 25(g) amends section 15(2)(a)(iii) so registration is triggered once turnover exceeds the Sixth Schedule amount rather than “irrespective of his turnover”, and adds a carve-out for services supplied exclusively to VAT-registered persons. Under section 28(2), section 25(g) commences on 1 October 2026; section 25(f) is not listed in section 28 and therefore took effect on publication, 13 August 2026. (National Assembly of Mauritius)
What it means: Two different dates in one reform, and the earlier one is the one nobody will diarise. The representative requirement is already gone; the threshold and the B2B carve-out are not. A small foreign supplier that is registered today may be able to deregister in October — but not yet.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Mauritius — VAT: marketplace commission joins the digital-services net
Section 25(u) amends Part III of the Tenth Schedule, which defines “digitally or electronically supplied services” for sections 2, 14A and 15(2)(a)(iii). It adds a new item 8, “Commission, fee or other consideration receivable by operators of online marketplace”, and deletes ”, electronic books” from item 1. (National Assembly of Mauritius)
What it means: Read together with the section above, this is one coherent move rather than three: e-books leave the foreign-supplier regime for the zero-rating schedule, and marketplace commission takes their place. Marketplaces that concluded they were outside Mauritian VAT because they sell nothing themselves should re-run that analysis on the commission line.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Sweden — VAT: food down to 6%, until the end of 2027
Skatteverket confirms the rate on foodstuffs fell from 12% to 6% on 1 April 2026, running to 31 December 2027, following Proposition 2025/26:55 and the Riksdag’s approval on 25 February 2026. Restaurant services stay at 12%, so a business selling both eat-in and takeaway applies 12% to the first and 6% to the second. (Skatteverket)
What it means: The eat-in/takeaway split is where this gets expensive. A single till selling the same sandwich two ways now needs two rates on it, and the distinction is the customer’s choice at the point of sale — not the product. That is a POS configuration problem before it is a tax one, and it has a hard end-date in December 2027 that will need undoing.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Hungary — VAT: firewood to 5%, now with a date
The government has put a date on the firewood cut it announced in outline: from 15 September 2026 the rate falls from 27% to 5%, covering logs, split and metered firewood, stumps and brushwood, and pressed fuels including pellets, briquettes and wood pucks. No amending Act had been published in Magyar Kozlony as at 18 August 2026, so the cut is not yet law. (Government of Hungary)
What it means: We deliberately reported this without a date last time, because the government’s own page said only “from autumn”. It now names 15 September — but an announcement is not an enactment, and no amending Act has been gazetted with three weeks to run. Treat the date as planning input, not as law.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Isle of Man — VAT: domestic electricity to 0% from 1 October
The Isle of Man Treasury confirmed that VAT on domestic electricity supplies falls from 5% to 0% from 1 October 2026, mirroring the UK announcement of the same day and reflecting the Island’s obligation under the Customs and Excise Agreement to maintain the same VAT rates as the United Kingdom. (Isle of Man Government Treasury)
What it means: The Isle of Man has now put this in writing and the United Kingdom, so far, has not — no statutory instrument amending Schedule 7A has been made, and HMRC’s own rates guidance still shows 5%. Two jurisdictions bound to the same rate are six weeks out from a change only one of them has legislated.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Türkiye — excise: diesel ÖTV zeroed for the rest of August, then stepped back
Presidential Decision No. 11606 (Resmî Gazete No. 33339, 13 August 2026) redetermines the Special Consumption Tax amounts on diesel-type fuel under GTIP codes 2710.19.43.00.11 and 2710.20.11.00.11, setting them to zero for 13–31 August 2026 and phasing them back monthly through January 2027. (T.C. Resmî Gazete)
What it means: This is the second fuel-ÖTV redetermination we have recorded in six weeks, after Decision 11488 in July. The pattern matters more than either decision: Turkish fuel excise is now being reset often enough that a rate table refreshed quarterly will be wrong most of the time.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
South Africa — e-invoicing: SARS opens the VAT Modernisation consultation
SARS released its VAT Modernisation Consultation Paper on 17 August 2026, proposing a Digital VAT Model with three components — e-Invoicing, an Interoperability Framework and e-Reporting. Comments are due by 16 October 2026. (SARS)
What it means: South Africa has been the largest economy on the continent without a declared CTC direction. This is the consultation that ends that, and the eight-week comment window is the cheapest opportunity anyone will get to shape the interoperability layer before it hardens.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Switzerland — VAT: the standard-rate rise goes to a vote on 29 November
The Federal Council has set a mandatory national referendum for 29 November 2026 on the Federal Decree of 19 June 2026 (BBl 2026 1757) financing the AHV old-age pension system through an increase in VAT. (Swiss Federal Chancellery)
What it means: The constitutional amendment we reported in June now has a decision date, which converts an open-ended proposal into a diary entry. Nothing changes for rate tables until the vote — and, because Liechtenstein maintains Swiss VAT rates under the customs union, the same ballot decides the rate in two jurisdictions.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Azerbaijan — digital services: registration bites from September, not August
The State Tax Service states that, under this year’s Tax Code amendments, electronic tax registration becomes mandatory from September 2026 for non-resident digital-service providers whose annual Azerbaijani turnover exceeds USD 10,000. Registered providers self-calculate, self-declare and remit the VAT themselves; banks do not withhold it on customer payments. (State Tax Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan)
What it means: This corrects a date we published in June as 23 August, which came from an advisory summary rather than the authority. The bank-withholding point is the one that changes behaviour: the old mechanism collected VAT at the payment rail, and the new one puts the obligation on the supplier.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Mauritania — digital services: VAT extended to non-resident suppliers
The Loi de Finances Rectificative pour l’année 2026, promulgated 10 August 2026, adds a new paragraph 5 to Tax Code Article 221 and a new Article 221-bis, bringing non-resident suppliers of electronically supplied services — online advertising, cloud computing including hosting and data storage, software made available remotely, and platform intermediation — within Mauritanian VAT where the service is used or exploited in Mauritania. (Ministère des Finances, République Islamique de Mauritanie)
What it means: A first-time entrant, and one that two of our sweeps found independently before either found the law. The place-of-supply test is “used or exploited in Mauritania”, which is broader than a customer-location test and will catch B2B advertising spend routed through regional hubs.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Nepal — digital services: 5% VAT on ride-sharing platform fees
The Inland Revenue Department issued a public notice implementing new sub-section (1-Kha) of section 7 of the VAT Act 2052, added by the Finance Act 2083. Platform operators must collect VAT at 5% of the fee the rider charges for the transport or delivery service, issue the prescribed tax invoice on the rider’s behalf, and remit by the 25th of the following month; the platform cannot claim input tax credit on the amount collected. Riders must hold a PAN but are not themselves required to register for VAT. Platforms continue to charge the standard 13% on their own commission and booking-fee income. In force from 17 July 2026. (Inland Revenue Department, Nepal)
What it means: Two different rates on one transaction, and the platform is on the hook for both — 5% withheld and invoiced on the rider’s behalf, 13% on its own cut. The part that bites is the denial of input credit on the collected 5%: it is a collection duty, not a supply the platform can net off. A single regional billing stack cannot express this without a Nepal-specific rule.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Armenia — digital services: EAEU marketplaces liable from 2027
Law No. ՀՕ-83-Ն amends the Tax Code so that an e-commerce platform operator established in another EAEU member state becomes liable to calculate and pay Armenian VAT on goods it supplies through its platform to natural persons in Armenia, irrespective of the VAT threshold, where the place of supply is Armenia under Article 37(1)(2) of the Code and the operator has no permanent establishment there. Adopted 4 March, signed 30 March, published 31 March 2026, in force 1 January 2027. (ARLIS — Armenian Legal Information System)
What it means: This is the goods limb, not the services limb — an EAEU marketplace that has been treating Armenia as a services-only exposure has a new obligation on physical shipments. The “irrespective of the VAT threshold” wording removes the usual small-seller relief.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Saint Kitts and Nevis — VAT: two days at 5% at the end of August
The government confirmed Discounted VAT Rate Days for the back-to-school period on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 August 2026, when the rate on qualifying retail supplies falls from 17% to 5%, under the same recurring scheme used at Easter and Christmas. (St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service)
What it means: Routine as policy, disruptive as configuration: a two-day rate change needs to go into the till and come back out again, and there is no gazetted instrument to trigger off — the dates are announced by press release.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Malaysia — sales tax: vessels moved out of the taxable schedule
The Sales Tax (Rate of Sales Tax) (Amendment) Order 2026 [P.U.(A) 281], gazetted 31 July 2026, deletes headings 89.01, 89.05, 89.06, 89.07 and 89.08 — ships, tugs, light-vessels, floating docks and other vessels — from the First Schedule to the Sales Tax (Rate of Sales Tax) Order 2025, with P.U.(A) 276 handling the exempted-person side. Effective 1 August 2026. (Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, via the Royal Malaysian Customs MySST portal)
What it means: Heading 89.03 — yachts and pleasure craft — is treated separately from the commercial vessel headings, so this is not a blanket marine exemption. Check the heading, not the vessel.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Mauritius — VAT: the input-tax recovery window closes by a year
Section 25(j) of the same Act amends section 21(6) of the Value Added Tax Act, deleting “36 months” and replacing it with “24 months”. Section 21(6) is the provision that lets a registered person claim input tax it failed to take in the right taxable period. Section 25(j) is not listed in section 28, so it took effect on publication, 13 August 2026. (National Assembly of Mauritius)
What it means: This is the quietest change in the Act and probably the most expensive. Anything sitting unclaimed between 24 and 36 months old stopped being recoverable on the day the Act was published — with no transitional provision, and no announcement framing it as a deadline. If you hold a Mauritian VAT registration, that reconciliation is now urgent rather than routine.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
In short
- United Arab Emirates — FTA Directive on Tax Transactions No. 1 of 2026, issued 8 July 2026 confirms that VAT-registered judicial experts appointed by courts, judicial authorities or arbitration centres make taxable supplies. (Federal Tax Authority) · Full record →
- Bangladesh — SRO No. 147-Ain/2026/352-Mushak, gazetted 7 June 2026, exempts NBR-registered startups from VAT on local supplies, imported services and premises rent, from 1 July 2026. (National Board of Revenue) · Full record →
- Czech Republic — the General Financial Directorate’s updated guidance on gratuitous supplies of goods, applied uniformly since 1 July 2026, confirms input VAT is retained on goods donated after they lose resale value. (Finanční správa) · Full record →
- Cyprus — the VAT return and payment for the period ended 30 June 2026, and the VIES recapitulative statement, are extended to 20 August 2026. (Cyprus Tax Department) · Full record →
- Finland — Law 1358/2025 lowered the reduced VAT rate from 14% to 13.5% from 1 January 2026, and public broadcasting moved from 10% to 13.5%. (Finlex) · Full record →
- Jamaica — a Special Consumption Tax on non-alcoholic sweetened beverages at J$0.22 per gram of added sweetener took effect 1 May 2026. (Tax Administration Jamaica) · Full record →
- Peru — SUNAT Resolución 000075-2026 makes new RUC registrants electronic issuers from the day of registration rather than the third month following, from 1 June 2026. (SUNAT) · Full record →
- Saudi Arabia — the Cancellation of Fines and Exemption of Financial Penalties Initiative is extended six months, to 31 December 2026. (ZATCA) · Full record →
- Slovakia — high-sugar and high-salt foods and sweetened beverages moved from the 19% reduced rate to the 23% standard rate on 1 January 2026, under laws 261/2025 and 385/2025 Z. z. (Finančné riaditeľstvo SR) · Full record →
- Sierra Leone — the Finance Act 2026 replaced GST Act section 100, requiring non-resident suppliers of digital services with no physical presence to appoint a resident representative, from 1 January 2026. (National Revenue Authority) · Full record →
- Sierra Leone — the same Act replaced GST Act section 38(1), so GST is due by the end of the month following the tax period. (National Revenue Authority) · Full record →
- Sudan — the Taxation Chamber announced the resumption of the national E-Invoice System on 4 May 2026, publishing the registration form, technical requirements and client software. (Sudan Taxation Chamber) · Full record →
- Tanzania — a TRA public notice of 6 August 2026, issued as a ruling under section 11 of the Tax Administration Act, zero-rates transport services between a subcontractor and a lead transporter on cross-border routes. (Tanzania Revenue Authority) · Full record →
- Tanzania (Zanzibar) — the Zanzibar Revenue Authority confirms 18% VAT on electronic services supplied by non-residents to non-registered persons under sections 4A and 4B of its own VAT Act, with the enforcement grace period ending in January 2027. (Zanzibar Revenue Authority) · Full record →
- Ukraine — the Cabinet approved and sent to the Rada draft law No. 15112-d, which would apply VAT to goods imported through foreign online marketplaces from EUR 0, removing the position under which parcels up to EUR 150 are not taxed; the Cabinet expects the rules to take effect no earlier than 1 January 2027. (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine) · Full record →
- Vietnam — Circular 91/2026/TT-BTC, effective 1 July 2026, replaces Circular 32/2025 and adds a consumer-reward mechanism for reporting unissued e-invoices. (Government Portal) · Full record →
- Samoa — the Ministry for Revenue has ended TIMS compliance extensions and begun applying penalties following the refresher training held between 30 April and 7 May 2026. (Samoa Ministry for Revenue) · Full record →
- South Korea — the 2026 Tax Reform Proposal renames tax-invoice date fields, with “작성연월일” becoming “공급연월일” and the existing optional field becoming “발급일”, applying to invoices issued on or after 1 July 2027. (Ministry of Finance and Economy) · Full record →
- Luxembourg — Projet de loi n° 8815 was deposited with the Chamber of Deputies on 30 July 2026, amending the 2019 electronic-invoicing law beyond public procurement. (Chambre des Députés) · Full record →
- Uganda — the Tax Procedures Code (Amendment) Act 2026 inserts section 47C, waiving tax, penal tax and interest owed as at 30 June 2016 and still outstanding, and reduces minimum penalties for tax-stamp and EFRIS offences. (Parliament of Uganda) · Full record →
- Chad — the Finance Law for 2026 (Loi n° 008/AN/SENAT/2025) extends VAT to resident and non-resident digital platforms with a reverse charge for unregistered suppliers, extends the 9% reduced rate to local dairy and meat, and mandates e-invoicing for public expenditure. (Ministère des Finances) · Full record →
Themes this week
Non-resident digital services is now the single busiest category, and it is no longer a large-economy story. Nine of this week’s thirty-six changes extend VAT to foreign suppliers or platforms: Mauritania and Chad legislate it for the first time, Zanzibar confirms its own rate separately from mainland Tanzania, Sierra Leone requires a resident representative, Armenia reaches EAEU marketplaces selling goods, Azerbaijan sets a registration date, Nepal taxes ride-hailing commission, and Mauritius simultaneously eases the obligation for suppliers and widens it to marketplace commission. The common design is converging — a turnover threshold, a simplified registration, and liability placed on the platform rather than the payment rail — but the trigger tests are not: “used or exploited in” (Mauritania), place of supply under a code article (Armenia), and physical presence (Sierra Leone) will not always give the same answer for the same sale.
Rate policy is being used against household costs, in both directions and with end-dates attached. Sweden’s food VAT is down to 6% until December 2027, Hungary is legislating firewood to 5% from mid-September, the Isle of Man is zeroing domestic electricity, and Türkiye has zeroed diesel excise for the rest of August before stepping it back monthly. Slovakia moved the other way, pushing high-sugar and high-salt foods up to 23%. Almost none of these are permanent, which means each one is two configuration changes rather than one, and the reversal dates are already in the instruments.
Two of this week’s most consequential facts are corrections to things this newsletter previously reported. Mauritius did not zero-rate common salt, and it relieved e-books by zero-rating rather than the exemption we described; Azerbaijan’s non-resident registration bites in September, not on 23 August. Both earlier entries rested on sources that were summarising legislation rather than carrying it. Where a change matters enough to configure a system around, it is worth waiting for the gazette.
Sources
Every fact above links to the official instrument it rests on, and each change has its own record page carrying the verbatim source text, the archived document and the supersession history. The machine-readable feed for this week is published alongside the issue.