What changed
Thailand — VAT: the 7% rate is extended to 30 September 2027, five weeks before it would have lapsed
Royal Decree (No. 807) B.E. 2569 was published in the Royal Gazette on 23 August 2026. It repeals section 4 of Royal Decree No. 646 and replaces it with a new section 4 keeping the reduced rate of 6.3% under section 80 of the Revenue Code — 7% once local tax is added — for supplies where VAT liability arises up to 30 September 2027. The Decree itself comes into force on 1 October 2026. (Thai Revenue Department)
What it means: For most of August this looked like it might go the other way. The Cabinet had approved a draft in principle on 27 July, but the decree-number slot in the Revenue Department’s own press release was literally blank, and with no gazetted decree the statutory 10% would have applied automatically from 1 October — a three-point rate rise in a major economy, arriving by default rather than by decision. It did not happen. If you staged a 10% rate change for 1 October, unwind it; if you did nothing, you are already correct.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Uganda — VAT: the registration threshold is UGX 300 million, not the 250 million previously reported
The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development’s Budget Speech for FY2026/2027, delivered on 11 June 2026, states an increase in the annual VAT threshold from UGX 150 million to UGX 300 million, a measure it projects will raise UGX 349 billion. (Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development)
What it means: This corrects a figure we published in issue #10. That entry said 250 million, which was the number in the VAT (Amendment) Bill 2026 as introduced — a bill’s figures are provisional until the Act carries them, and this one moved. The correction has taken three attempts to source, because Uganda Revenue Authority’s document paths are behind a bot challenge; the Budget Speech was the way in. If you tested a registration obligation against 250 million for any period since 1 July 2026, test it again.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Tanzania — VAT: correction — the withholding rate is 3% on goods and 6% on services, not 15% and 12%
The Tanzania Revenue Authority states that where a supply subject to the standard rate is made in Mainland Tanzania to a withholding agent, the VAT rate remains 18%; the agent withholds 3% of the consideration on a supply of goods and 6% on a supply of services and remits that to the Commissioner General, and the supplier is accordingly entitled to receive 15% or 12% respectively. (Tanzania Revenue Authority)
What it means: This corrects a figure we published in issue #15. The 15% and 12% that section 91 of the Finance Act 2026 inserted into section 5(5) are the shares paid over to the supplier, not the amounts to be withheld — section 5 is headed “Value added tax rate and amount payable”, which is the clue the statute gives you. Read in isolation the amending words look like a rate table, and we read them that way. An agent that configured 15% has been withholding five times too much on goods since 1 July 2026. The money is not lost, but it sits with the Commissioner General rather than the supplier, and unwinding it means re-running payments rather than adjusting a later return. The 3:2 apportionment for mixed supplies is unaffected.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Oman — e-invoicing: Decision 189/2026 sets 1 April 2027 and 1 October 2027, split at OMR 5 million
The Tax Authority’s Decision No. 189/2026, published in Official Gazette Issue 1660 and on the Ministry of Legal Affairs legislation portal on 9 August 2026, and signed on 3 August, replaces the text of Article 143 and of the second paragraph of Article 146 of the VAT Executive Regulations, and adds Articles 143 bis, 143 bis (1) and 143 bis (2) and item (11) of Article 147. The replaced Article 146(2) requires the simplified tax invoice to be issued within the Article 143 deadlines. Tax invoices must be issued in an approved, secured electronic format with a unique number per invoice, from 1 April 2027 for taxable persons whose annual supplies exceed OMR 5 million and from 1 October 2027 for those at or below it. (Ministry of Legal Affairs)
What it means: These dates and this threshold are not what the Oman Tax Authority’s own live Fawtara FAQ says. That FAQ, dated 30 June 2026, puts Phase 2 in February 2027 and Phase 3 in August 2027 and mentions no revenue threshold at all. When a published FAQ and a gazetted decision disagree, the decision governs — plan against April and October 2027, and expect the FAQ to catch up.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Moldova — VAT: the Convergence Fund law commences on 1 January 2027, not 1 August 2026
Law No. 67 of 30 April 2026, published in Monitorul Oficial No. 194-197 of 7 May 2026, establishes a Convergence Fund and amends Law No. 1417/1997 so that balancing-electricity supplies to economic agents with no fiscal relations with Moldova’s budgetary system, and imports and onward supplies of natural gas of heading 2711 to those consumers and agents, become subject to VAT under a procedure to be set by the Government. Article VI brings the law into force on publication, except that the VAT provisions of Article II commence on 1 January 2027 and the excise provisions of Article II and Article III commence on 1 January 2030. (Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova)
What it means: A correction to issue #14, which recorded this as effective 1 August 2026. The law’s own commencement article says otherwise, and it is unusually explicit: three different dates for three groups of provisions. The 2030 date on the excise limb is a five-year runway, not an oversight — this is a phased extension of the tax base into the Transnistrian region, and it was never going to start this month.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Malaysia — e-Invoice: the exemption threshold triples to RM3 million
The Inland Revenue Board published e-Invoice Guideline version 4.8 on 30 August 2026, replacing version 4.7 of 7 July. Section 1.6.1(e) exempts taxpayers with annual turnover or revenue of less than RM3,000,000 from issuing e-Invoices, including self-billed e-Invoices, up from RM1,000,000. The exemption does not apply where the taxpayer has a non-individual shareholder, holding company, related company or joint venture with annual turnover of at least RM3,000,000. (Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia)
What it means: A large number of businesses just fell out of scope — but read the group test before you stand a project down. A small company inside a larger group stays in, and the test looks at shareholders, holding companies, related companies and joint ventures, which is broader than a simple consolidation test.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Dominican Republic — e-invoicing: large-local and medium taxpayers go e-CF only on 1 November 2026
DGII Aviso 14-26 of 26 August 2026 requires taxpayers classified as Grandes Locales and Medianos under Law No. 32-23 to issue electronic invoices exclusively, using e-CF sequences of type E, from 1 November 2026. Type B non-electronic sequences already assigned to them are valid only until 31 October 2026 under article 55 of Regulation 587-24, after which they may be used only in declared contingency under Chapter IX. (Dirección General de Impuestos Internos)
What it means: The hard edge here is the type B sequence expiry on 31 October, not the e-CF start date. If your fallback plan is “keep issuing on the old sequences while we finish the integration”, that plan stops working the day before the mandate begins, and the only remaining route is a declared contingency.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Italy — VAT: the Revenue Agency can now assess an omitted return automatically from your own e-invoice data
Provvedimento Prot. n. 239129/2026 of 28 August 2026 implements Article 54-bis.1 of DPR 633/1972, inserted by Law No. 199 of 30 December 2025. Where the annual VAT return is omitted, the Agency may determine the tax owed, including by automated procedures, from electronic invoices issued and received, electronic daily receipts transmitted and periodic VAT settlement communications, net of payments already made, up to 31 December of the seventh year following the year the return was due. Interest runs at 4% and the penalty is 120% of the tax, reduced to one third with interest at 3.5% on payment within 60 days of notice. (Agenzia delle Entrate)
What it means: Italy has been collecting every B2B invoice through SdI since 2019. This is the moment that archive stops being a reporting obligation and becomes an assessment power: the authority no longer needs your return to compute your liability, because it already has your invoices. Expect the same logic wherever a clearance model has been running long enough to have a complete data set.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Armenia — VAT: a one-off registration cure window closes on 21 December 2026
Law No. HO-234-N, adopted 6 May 2026 and published 3 June 2026, adds Article 33(5) to the Tax Code. A taxpayer who failed to submit the VAT-payer registration declaration in the cases specified by Article 59 may apply to the tax authority by 21 December 2026 inclusive for the opportunity to file it, and on an accepted application may file by 31 December 2026 inclusive and be registered for the relevant case and deadlines. The provision reaches back to relationships arising from 1 January 2022, and VAT previously assessed on the ground of non-registration — including assessments under judicial appeal — is recalculated. (ARLIS — Armenian Legal Information System)
What it means: An amnesty with a real deadline and an unusually generous reach: four and a half years of retrospective exposure, and it explicitly captures assessments already in litigation. Two dates, ten days apart, and missing the first forfeits the second.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Slovenia — e-invoicing: the B2B mandate applies from 1 January 2028, with provider registration from 1 April 2027
ZIERDED, adopted by the Državni zbor on 23 October 2025 and published in Uradni list RS No. 85/2025 of 6 November 2025, requires business entities to exchange exclusively structured electronic invoices, through registered exchange-route providers or Peppol, for mutual supplies performed in Slovenia. Article 28 brings the law into force thirty days after publication but applies its provisions from 1 January 2028, except Chapter 4 on provider registration, which applies from 1 April 2027. The law transposes Council Directive (EU) 2025/516. (Uradni list Republike Slovenije)
What it means: The law is not new — it was passed last November. What is new is that we can now state its dates, because Slovenia’s tax authority and gazette front-ends are JavaScript shells and the status had gone unverified. The date that matters first is not 2028: it is 1 April 2027, when the provider register opens, because that is when the choice of exchange route stops being theoretical.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Brazil — e-invoicing: the split-payment fields arrive in the NF-e layout
Nota Técnica 2026.006 version 1.00 creates a new NF-e and NFC-e layout group YC carrying the link between the fiscal document and the payment transaction for split payment, together with event code 110300. The fields need not be populated in production during 2026; homologation testing opens 5 October 2026 and production implementation is 3 November 2026, with activation tied to split payment’s planned start in 2027. (Portal Nacional da NF-e)
What it means: Split payment is the most structurally demanding piece of Brazil’s consumption-tax reform — tax settled at the moment of payment rather than on a return — and this is the first concrete technical specification with dates attached. The 2026 dates are for your integration team, not your tax team: nothing has to be populated this year, but the layout has to exist by November.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Republic of the Congo — VAT: E-TAX filing and FOUTA payment become mandatory on 1 October 2026
Lettre circulaire No. 1091/MFBPP-CAB of 24 August 2026 provides that from 1 October 2026 all enterprises attached to the large-enterprise, medium-enterprise and oil-and-gas-subcontractor units must file electronically on E-TAX and pay all taxes and duties, including VAT and amounts assessed by avis de mise en recouvrement, exclusively through the FOUTA platform. The Guichet Unique de Paiement remains available only until 30 September 2026 and only where the taxpayer’s bank is not yet connected to FOUTA; small and very small enterprises may continue to use it. (Ministère des Finances, du Budget et du Portefeuille Public)
What it means: The dependency here is your bank, not your ERP. The transitional relief is conditioned on the bank not being connected yet, which means the question to ask this month is whether yours is — and if it is, the transition is already over for you.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
Egypt — VAT: a specific tax of EGP 20 per thousand cubic feet on natural gas
Law No. 149 of 2026, published in Official Gazette No. 30 bis (a) of 28 July 2026 and in force the following day, adds a new item 17 to the first schedule of goods and services attached to the VAT Law imposing a specific tax of EGP 20 per thousand cubic feet on natural gas, and repeals items 8 and 10 of that schedule. (Egyptian Tax Authority)
What it means: A specific tax by volume rather than an ad valorem rate, so it does not move with price and cannot be handled as a rate change in a tax engine — it needs a per-unit charge on a measured quantity. Two schedule items were repealed in the same law, so the schedule needs re-reading in full rather than patching.
Full record, with the verbatim source text →
In short
- Armenia — a margin-based VAT base applies to sales of items made of gold from 1 July 2026, and gold and jewellery traders lose input VAT deduction on purchases and imports of those items except on zero-rated supplies. (ARLIS) · Full record →
- Armenia — foreign-currency conversion for the taxable base moves to the Central Bank rate published on the previous business day, replacing the same-day rate, from 1 July 2026. (ARLIS) · Full record →
- Tanzania — imports by and supplies to holders of a mining or special mining licence with a Cabinet-approved Government framework agreement are exempt where used solely for construction of the project, ceasing on commencement of production. (Parliament of Tanzania) · Full record →
- Tanzania — Schedule Part I is amended: dog and cat food for retail sale is excluded from an exemption, polyester fishing yarn, aircraft tyres and gas turbines are added, and locally manufactured garments from locally grown cotton are exempt from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. (Parliament of Tanzania) · Full record →
- Tanzania — VAT Act section 11 loses the proviso to subsection (1) and gains a condition that the person has fulfilled requirements the Minister may prescribe by order in the Gazette. (Parliament of Tanzania) · Full record →
- Uruguay — DGI Resolutions 1983/2026 and 1984/2026 of 27 August revise the fresh-meat VAT collection-at-source regime, setting new deemed retail prices per kilogram, retail-stage value-added percentages of 20% and 12%, and new deemed VAT values for own-account slaughter, from 1 September 2026. (DGI / IMPO Diario Oficial) · Full record →
- Egypt — a VAT credit balance outstanding more than four consecutive tax periods qualifies for refund, or more than three months for enterprises within Law No. 6 of 2025 whose annual turnover does not exceed EGP 20 million. (Egyptian Tax Authority) · Full record →
- Egypt — a new Article 28 bis suspends VAT on machinery, equipment and medical devices bought or imported for industrial production for one year, extendable to three, converting to an exemption once the authority establishes the items were so used. (Egyptian Tax Authority) · Full record →
- DR Congo — the VAT taxation groups used in certified invoicing systems are updated: group A becomes Exonéré et Hors Champ, group C moves from 8% to 5%, group G to the 5% public-procurement rate, and new groups O and P at 1% are added, with re-homologation required. (Direction Générale des Impôts) · Full record →
- Austria — from 1 January 2027 customs offices may order mandatory collection of import VAT for up to two years where a financial offence under section 80 FinStrG is suspected, applying to imports occurring after 31 December 2026. (Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes) · Full record →
- Poland — a reduced 8% VAT rate applied to motor petrol, diesel and self-standing biocomponent fuels from 17 to 31 August 2026 only; the 23% standard rate applies again from 1 September. (Dziennik Ustaw) · Full record →
- Brazil — Ato Conjunto RFB/CGIBS No. 5 of 12 August 2026 regulates the Programa Nacional de Conformidade Tributária for 2026; taxpayers with inconsistencies stay enrolled if they correct communicated inconsistencies by 31 December 2026 and keep a designated accountant of record. (Receita Federal do Brasil) · Full record →
- Mauritius — failure to comply with section 28(2) of the VAT Act is now an offence carrying a fine of up to 100,000 rupees and imprisonment of up to 2 years. (Mauritius Revenue Authority) · Full record →
- Mauritius — the maximum penalty under sections 32(4) and 32A(3) of the VAT Act rises from 200,000 to 500,000 rupees. (Mauritius Revenue Authority) · Full record →
- Germany — the government draft of the Jahressteuergesetz 2026, approved by Cabinet on 12 August 2026, would form VAT groups by declaration to the tax office rather than automatically, from 1 July 2029. Not yet law. (Bundesministerium der Finanzen) · Full record →
- Germany — the same draft would extend the electronic-interface deemed-supplier fiction to supplies made to Schwellenerwerber from 1 January 2027, transposing the amended Article 14a of the VAT Directive. Not yet law. (Bundesministerium der Finanzen) · Full record →
- South Africa — the Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2026, published for comment on 30 July, would make a Budget announcement of a VAT rate alteration effective from the date the Minister determines, holding for 12 months pending confirming legislation. A draft, not law. (SARS / National Treasury) · Full record →
- Bolivia — RND No. 102600000031 of 13 August 2026 lets taxpayers change taxpayer type and regime online and adds electronic NIT-status and registration certificates carrying a verifiable QR code. (Servicio de Impuestos Nacionales) · Full record →
- Bhutan — an Addendum of 26 June 2026 confirms the GST exemptions on fresh butter, further rice and cooking-oil categories and automatic wheelchairs legally commenced on 18 May 2026, not 25 June; GST paid from 18 May remains eligible for input tax credit adjustment. (Department of Revenue and Customs) · Full record →
- France — DGFiP finalised its doctrine on 26 August 2026 confirming that cooling energy distributed by network takes the reduced 5.5% rate under a new article 278-0 bis B bis of the CGI, in force since 21 February 2026. (DGFiP — BOFiP-Impôts) · Full record →
Themes this week
Three governments announced a 1 October cut and none of them has legislated it. The United Kingdom said in July that VAT on domestic electricity would go from 5% to zero on 1 October; as of 31 August, gov.uk’s own rates page still shows 5%, HMRC’s fuel and power notice has not been touched since February 2025, and no statutory instrument has been laid. Barbados announced a registration threshold rise from BBD 200,000 to 350,000 for the same date; the Revenue Authority still publishes “January 1, 2016 – Present day: $200,000” and no amendment bill is before the House. British Columbia’s PST expansion to accounting, architectural, engineering, real-estate and security services carries the same date, and the bill text published by BC Laws is still the first-reading version whose own commencement table defers to Royal Assent. None of these is on this week’s list, because an announcement is not a rule. All three are worth watching precisely because the gap between announcement and instrument has now lasted longer than the notice period businesses were given.
Finance Acts keep yielding limbs long after anyone stopped reading them. Tanzania’s Finance Act 2026 was assented on 30 June. Earlier issues had already read two of its VAT amendments; reading the whole of Part XXVI this week — sections 91 to 96, touching VAT Act sections 5, 6, 11, 51, 71 and the Schedule — turned up three more, including the mining-project exemption at section 92 and the Schedule Part I changes at section 96. Mauritius’s Finance Act 2026 has now produced seventeen distinct VAT and excise limbs across four issues. Egypt’s Law 149 of 2026 has produced four, three of them this week. The pattern is consistent: one instrument, many independent obligations, and the ones past the first two or three are the ones nobody has costed.
Clearance data is turning into assessment power. Italy’s new provision lets the Revenue Agency compute a taxpayer’s VAT liability directly from the e-invoices and daily receipts it already holds when a return is missing — the archive built for reporting is now sufficient to raise an assessment without the taxpayer’s participation. Germany’s draft extension of the deemed-supplier fiction to Schwellenerwerber points the same way from a different angle: rather than chase many small suppliers, put the liability on the intermediary that already sits in the data path. Both are what a mature clearance system makes possible, and both arrive without any change in the underlying rate.
Administrative dates and legal dates are not the same date, and the corpus keeps learning it. Three separate corrections this week turn on that distinction. Bhutan’s exemptions legally commenced on 18 May, the date the amending Act commenced, while 25 June was only when collection stopped at the border and the till. Moldova’s law took effect on publication but its VAT limb does not commence until 1 January 2027. And Uganda’s threshold is 300 million because that is what the Act carries, not 250 million, which is what the bill carried when it was introduced. In each case the earlier, wrong figure came from a source that was official but was describing an operational step rather than a legal one.
Sources
Every change above links to its own record, which carries the verbatim sentence from the official document it rests on, together with the instrument number, the gazette reference and the date the source was captured. The machine-readable feed for this issue is data/tax-changes/2026-W36.json in the research repository, and each entry there names the legal instrument it depends on so the chain from a figure back to its statute can be walked without leaving the page.