In brief — two regulators moved the same lever in opposite directions, and the 2027 deadline wall came into focus:
- Saudi Arabia — ZATCA published Wave 25 criteria on 24 July 2026: the e-invoicing integration threshold halves to SAR 187,500 of VAT-taxable revenue in any of 2022–2025, with integration due by 1 February 2027.
- South Africa — VAT registration thresholds more than doubled from R1 million to R2.3 million per 12 months, for resident vendors and non-resident electronic-services suppliers alike, effective 1 April 2026.
- Zimbabwe — the standard VAT rate has been 15.5% since 1 January 2026, and a Digital Services Withholding Tax now makes banks and mobile-money operators withhold 15.5% from unregistered non-resident digital suppliers.
- United States — Utah taxes streaming and SaaS from 1 July 2026, California taxes remotely accessed software from 1 January 2027, and the District of Columbia goes from 6% to 7% on 1 October 2026.
- Slovakia — mandatory domestic B2B and B2G e-invoicing is confirmed for 1 January 2027, with the certified provider list updated on 22 July 2026.
- Oman — the Tax Authority set out all four Fawtara phases for the first time: August 2026, February 2027, August 2027, and a fourth phase for government bodies.
- Ireland — Revenue published a VAT modernisation timeline: domestic B2B e-invoicing for large corporates from November 2028, then November 2029, then July 2030.
- France — from 1 September 2026, VAT law moves out of the Code général des impôts into the Code des impositions sur les biens et services, the same day the e-invoicing mandate starts.
- Malaysia — five RMCD service tax policies land at once, including confirmation that rental and leasing is taxed at 6% from 1 January 2026.
- Brazil — CNPJ registration and fiscal-document issuance for individuals who are CBS taxpayers slips from 1 July 2026 to 1 January 2027.
- Kazakhstan — the new Tax Code has run VAT at 16% (up from 12%) since 1 January 2026, and halved the registration threshold to 10,000 MCI, or KZT 43.25 million for 2026.
- Croatia — the EU Council authorised excise on motor fuels below the EU minimum, by up to EUR 0.225 per litre on gas oil, from 1 August 2026 to 31 January 2027.
- Luxembourg and Belgium — both governments approved draft laws in mid-July: Luxembourg to transpose ViDA Article 1 into its VAT and e-invoicing laws, Belgium to require near-real-time VAT e-reporting from 1 January 2028.
- Vietnam — Circular 84/2026/TT-BTC, effective 1 July 2026, puts traveller VAT refunds on an electronic footing and replaces the 2014 rules.
- Kentucky (correction) — HB 757 was never signed by the Governor; it became law by veto override on 14 April 2026.
- Malaysia (correction) — the MyInvois interim relaxation for taxpayers up to RM5 million runs to 31 December 2027, not to 30 June 2026 as issue 11 reported.
Announced this week
Europe
Serbia — e-invoicing: SEF version 4.0.0 deployment postponed
The Sistem e-Faktura announced on 24 July 2026 that the production deployment of SEF version 4.0.0, scheduled for 26 July 2026, is postponed, with a new date to be published separately.
What 4.0.0 changes, why the new validation matters, and the source →
Slovakia — e-invoicing: eFaktúra confirmed for 1 January 2027
Zákon č. 385/2025 Z. z. makes domestic B2B and B2G electronic invoicing mandatory from 1 January 2027, with a transitional period running through 2026. The Financial Administration published FAQ 9/DPH/2025/IM on 7 July 2026 and an updated list of certified delivery-service providers on 22 July 2026.
The EN 16931 format rules, the provider model, and the sources →
Ireland — e-invoicing: a three-phase path to 2030
Revenue published a VAT Modernisation Timeline, updated 20 July 2026, with three phases: November 2028 for large VAT-registered corporates on domestic B2B, November 2029 for cross-border EU zero-rated B2B trade, and July 2030 for full ViDA alignment.
The receive-capability requirement, the legislative gap, and the source →
Belarus — VAT: interest-free import VAT deferral of up to three months
Council of Ministers Resolution No. 369 of 23 July 2026, published 24 July, grants legal entities an interest-free deferral of import VAT of up to three months from the day after release of goods for domestic consumption. The facility runs until 30 June 2027.
The security requirement, the application route, and the source →
Portugal — VAT: periodic return rebuilt for VAT groups
Portaria n.º 298/2026/1, published in the Diário da República on 16 July 2026, approves revised models for the periodic VAT return, Annex R and the field 40/41 regularisation annexes, applying from the tax period beginning 1 July 2026.
The VAT-group fields, the pre-filling change, and the source →
Poland — VAT: Council of Ministers approves a simplification package
The Council of Ministers approved a draft VAT Act amendment on 21 July 2026 covering electronic-only import declarations under the centralised customs procedure, alternative documentary proof that goods left the EU for the 0% rate, and import VAT exemption for personal consignments between individuals. The Ministry of Finance states the rules would take effect 14 days after publication in the Dziennik Ustaw.
The export-evidence change, the EUR 150 consignment rules, and the source →
Luxembourg — e-invoicing: draft law approved to transpose ViDA Article 1
The Council of Government approved on 17 July 2026 a draft law amending the law of 16 May 2019 on e-invoicing in public procurement and the amended VAT law of 12 February 1979, to transpose Article 1 of Council Directive (EU) 2025/516. No projet de loi number has been assigned and the bill had not been filed with the Chambre des Députés.
Why the circulating 2028 and 2029 dates are not stated here, and the source →
Belgium — VAT: near-real-time e-reporting proposed for 2028
The Council of Ministers approved on 18 July 2026 a preliminary draft law amending the VAT Code to require near-real-time electronic reporting of invoice data from 1 January 2028, and to abolish the annual client listing for taxpayers within the new regime. It still needs opinions from the Data Protection Authority and the Council of State.
How it sits on top of the 2026 e-invoicing mandate, and the source →
Croatia — excise: authorised to tax motor fuels below the EU minimum
The Council of the European Union adopted an implementing decision on 10 July 2026 authorising Croatia, under Article 19 of Directive 2003/96/EC, to tax motor fuels below the Directive’s minimum levels — up to EUR 0.225 per litre less on gas oil and up to EUR 0.2195 less on unleaded petrol — from 1 August 2026 to 31 January 2027.
The reversion date, the citation caveat, and the source →
Lithuania — VAT: import VAT deadline aligned with customs duty
Law No. XV-984, adopted 4 June 2026, amends Article 115(17) of the VAT Law so that from 1 July 2026 import VAT follows Union Customs Code rules: payable on release for free circulation, or by the 16th day of the following month where deferment is granted.
How far the payment date moves, and the source →
Middle East & Africa
Saudi Arabia — e-invoicing: Wave 25 halves the threshold to SAR 187,500
ZATCA published the Wave 25 criteria for the Fatoora Phase 2 integration mandate on 24 July 2026: taxpayers whose VAT-taxable revenues exceeded SAR 187,500 in any of 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 must integrate with the Fatoora platform by 1 February 2027. The Wave 24 criterion was SAR 375,000.
The four-year look-back, the notification promise, and the source →
Oman — e-invoicing: all four Fawtara phases set out for the first time
An updated Oman Tax Authority Fawtara FAQ dated 30 June 2026 sets out the complete rollout for the first time in an official document: Phase 1 from August 2026 for 100 selected large VAT-registered companies, Phase 2 from February 2027, Phase 3 from August 2027, and a fourth phase for government entities. The FAQ states the enabling regulation has not yet been issued.
The submission deadlines, the missing instrument, and the source →
United Arab Emirates — VAT: directive on converting digital-currency values to AED
The Federal Tax Authority issued Directive on Tax Transactions No. 3 of 2026 on the method of converting digital-currency values into AED, dated 17 July 2026, alongside Directive No. 4 of 2026 on life-insurance fees and Directive No. 5 of 2026 on the valuation of deemed supplies.
What the directive does and does not confirm, and the source →
Turkey — special consumption tax: fuel ÖTV table amended and indexation suspended
Presidential Decision No. 11488, published in Resmî Gazete No. 33299 (Mükerrer) on 3 July 2026, amends the fuel-product ÖTV amount table set by Decision No. 10995 and disapplies the automatic six-monthly producer-price-index revaluation for the July–December 2026 period.
Why the suspended indexation is the bigger change, and the source →
South Africa — VAT: registration thresholds more than double to R2.3 million
Clause 20 of the 2026 Draft Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill substitutes R2.3 million for R1 million in both the general compulsory VAT registration threshold and the threshold for non-resident suppliers of electronic services, and raises voluntary registration to R120,000. SARS has applied all three figures since 1 April 2026, although the Rates Bill itself is still a draft.
The section references, the deregistration question, and the sources →
Zimbabwe — VAT: the standard rate has been 15.5% since January
Zimbabwe’s standard VAT rate rose from 15% to 15.5% with effect from 1 January 2026 under the Finance Act, 2025 (Act No. 7 of 2025). ZIMRA Public Notice No. 7 of 2026 sets out the transitional treatment for Category A filers.
The TaRMS gross-down computation, and the source →
Zimbabwe — VAT: digital services move to withholding at source
From 1 January 2026 the Finance Act, 2025 substituted section 13A of the VAT Act [Chapter 23:12], replacing self-registration by non-resident digital suppliers with a Digital Services Withholding Tax: intermediaries withhold 15.5% of payments to suppliers not registered in Zimbabwe, or a tax fraction of 3/23 where the supplier is registered. Registration is required above USD 25,000 of Zimbabwean turnover in any 12-month period.
Who counts as an intermediary, the FDMS invoicing duty, and the source →
Asia-Pacific
Pakistan — sales tax: a unique FBR invoice number on every invoice
The Finance Act, 2025 (Act No. 7 of 2025), gazetted 26 June 2026, amends section 23(1) of the Sales Tax Act 1990 so that every registered person making a taxable or exempt supply must issue a tax invoice bearing a verifiable and unique FBR invoice number. The requirement applies from a date still to be notified by the Board.
The advance receipt invoice type, the exempt-supply reach, and the source →
Vietnam — VAT: traveller refunds move to an electronic system
Circular 84/2026/TT-BTC, signed 30 June 2026 and published in Công Báo No. 436 of 25 July 2026, establishes an electronic system for refunding VAT to foreigners and overseas Vietnamese on exit. It took effect 1 July 2026, replacing Circulars 72/2014/TT-BTC and 92/2019/TT-BTC except as provided in Article 17.
The gazette lag, the Article 17 carve-outs, and the source →
Bhutan — GST: exemptions widened
The GST (Amendment) Act of Bhutan 2026 adds fresh butter, further categories of rice, further categories of cooking oils, and automatic wheelchairs to the exempt list in Schedule IV(C) of the GST Act of Bhutan 2020, effective midnight on 25 June 2026.
The import leg, the notification reference, and the source →
Malaysia — service tax: five RMCD policies, including the 6% rental rate
Five Royal Malaysian Customs Department service tax policies landed in and around the window, closing a gap our previous issue could not read because the MySST portal renders its document list in JavaScript. Three of the five apply retroactively, two of them to 1 July 2025.
- Service Tax Policy No. 2/2025 (Amendment No. 5), 22 July 2026 — rental and leasing is taxed at 6% from 1 January 2026, following P.U.(A) 125 gazetted 13 March 2026. The refund mechanism and the new MSME exemption →
- Service Tax Policy No. 4/2026, 22 July 2026 — persons jointly letting under one agreement are separate entities for the registration threshold, effective 1 July 2025. The single-invoice trap →
- Service Tax Policy No. 1/2025 (Amendment No. 5), 1 July 2026 — Transactional Investment Account-i fees exempt from 1 June 2026; non-reviewable financial-services contracts taxable from 1 July 2026. The conditions and the no-refund rule →
- Service Tax Policy No. 3/2026, 24 June 2026 — JMB and MC maintenance charges and sinking fund contributions are not subject to service tax from 1 July 2026. Why the cut-off bites →
- Service Tax Policy No. 2/2026, 18 June 2026 — construction work on completed residential buildings is exempt from 1 July 2025. The evidence conditions and the closed refund window →
Kazakhstan — VAT: the rate is 16%, and the registration threshold has halved
Kazakhstan’s new Tax Code (No. 214-VIII ЗРК) has been in force since 1 January 2026. It sets the standard VAT rate at 16%, up from 12%, and cuts the mandatory registration threshold to 10,000 times the Monthly Calculation Index — KZT 43,250,000 for 2026 — from 20,000 times under the superseded Code.
The reduced rates on medicines and periodicals → · Why the KZT threshold moves every January →
Americas
Mexico — VAT: one joint filing for digital platforms, tighter CFDI controls
The Primera Resolución de Modificaciones a la RMF 2026, published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 9 July 2026, merges the monthly IVA declaration for digital services and the IEPS declaration for online gambling into a single joint filing for non-resident digital-platform operators, and adds new grounds for restricting CFDI issuance.
The amended rules, the airline withholding relief, and the source →
United States (Utah) — sales tax: streaming and SaaS become taxable
Utah Senate Bill 162, signed 23 March 2026, extends state sales and use tax from 1 July 2026 to access to streaming digital content and to prewritten computer software in all delivery forms, including software hosted by the seller.
The SaaS definition, the nexus knock-on, and the source →
Deadlines on the horizon
France — VAT law moves to a new code on 1 September 2026
Ordonnance n° 2025-1247 of 17 December 2025 moves the legislative VAT provisions out of the Code général des impôts into Book II of the Code des impositions sur les biens et services, effective 1 September 2026. DGFiP rescrit BOI-RES-TVA-000253 confirms that existing BOFiP doctrine and individual rulings issued under CGI provisions remain applicable under the corresponding CIBS articles. (DGFiP)
What it means: Substantively nothing changes, which is exactly why it gets missed. Every CGI article reference in invoice legal mentions, contracts, exemption certificates and tax-engine configuration becomes a stale citation on the same day the e-invoicing mandate goes live. Two changes, one date, one team.
United States (District of Columbia) — sales tax rises to 7% on 1 October 2026
The Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Support Act of 2025 (D.C. Law 26-55) amends D.C. Code § 47-2202 to raise the general sales and use tax rate from 6.0% to 7.0% from 1 October 2026. A previously scheduled 6.5% interim step from 1 October 2025 was repealed, so the rate stays at 6.0% until then. (DC Law Library)
What it means: A full point in one step, with the repealed interim step meaning systems that were configured for 6.5% in 2025 may hold a wrong value today as well as a wrong future one.
United States (California) — sales tax on digital products from 1 January 2027
California SB 122, signed 29 June 2026, amends the Revenue and Taxation Code to bring “digital products” into the sales and use tax base, defining the term to include prewritten computer software transferred on tangible media, transferred electronically, or accessed remotely, with a new section 6016.2 defining “accessed remotely” as access by digital code, password or other means to software residing on the seller’s system. Operative 1 January 2027. (California Legislative Counsel)
What it means: California is the largest US market to define remotely accessed software as taxable, and the definition is broad enough to capture most SaaS. Combined with Utah’s July start, the practical default for US software sellers is shifting from “not taxable unless the state says so” to the reverse.
Brazil — CBS: individual taxpayers get six more months
Decreto n° 13.075 of 21 July 2026 postpones to 1 January 2027 both the mandatory CNPJ registration and the obligation to issue fiscal documents for individuals who are CBS taxpayers; both had been due on 1 July 2026. Existing individual-taxpayer identification remains valid until 31 December 2026. (Diário Oficial da União)
What it means: Relief for the long tail of individual CBS taxpayers, but it lands them on the same date as the CBS start proper — a busier 1 January than before.
Themes this week
Two designs for the same problem, pulling apart. South Africa raised its registration thresholds from R1 million to R2.3 million — the non-resident electronic-services trigger and the general one alike — taking small suppliers out of the net entirely. Zimbabwe went the other way, replacing self-registration with 15.5% withholding at the payment rail for anyone unregistered above USD 25,000. Both are responses to the same enforcement difficulty — taxing suppliers you cannot easily reach — and they resolve it in opposite directions: one narrows the population to those worth administering, the other stops relying on the supplier at all. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, halved its threshold, pulling more taxpayers in.
2027 is where the e-invoicing deadlines have piled up, and Europe is legislating for what comes after. Saudi Arabia’s Wave 25 integration date is 1 February 2027, Slovakia’s mandate starts 1 January 2027, Oman’s Phase 2 lands in February 2027, and Brazil’s postponed CBS obligations now also fall on 1 January 2027. Behind that, three European governments moved in a single fortnight on obligations aimed at 2028 and beyond: Luxembourg approved a draft law transposing ViDA Article 1, Belgium approved one adding near-real-time e-reporting from 1 January 2028, and Ireland published a timeline starting November 2028. Programmes that treated 2026 as the crunch year face a heavier 2027 and a second wave after it.
Software is becoming taxable in the United States by default. Utah taxes streaming and seller-hosted software from 1 July 2026; California taxes remotely accessed prewritten software from 1 January 2027. Both statutes reach SaaS through explicit definitions rather than by interpretation, and both widen the revenue base that economic-nexus thresholds are measured against.
Most rate movement is incremental — with one outlier. Zimbabwe added half a point, the District of Columbia adds a full point, Malaysia confirmed 6% on rental after an interim 2%, Turkey froze fuel ÖTV indexation for half a year, Croatia won a six-month excise derogation, and Bhutan widened exemptions. None of those is a headline rate change, but each breaks a rate table. The exception is Kazakhstan, where the standard rate went 12% to 16% and the registration threshold halved in the same reform — the largest single move in this issue, and one that has been live since January.
Retroactivity is doing real work. Three of Malaysia’s five service tax policies apply retroactively, two to 1 July 2025; South Africa’s threshold, Zimbabwe’s rate and Kazakhstan’s whole Tax Code have been in force for months without appearing in this series; and Vietnam’s traveller-refund circular took effect on 1 July but only reached the official gazette on 25 July. The compliance risk in these is not the future date but the period already filed.