2020/02/27 Anyone Who Utilizes an Internet Platform to Sell Goods or Services Shall Apply for Tax Registration

The National Taxation Bureau of Taipei, Ministry of Finance (hereinafter referred to as the NTBT) expressed that anyone who utilizes an internet platform to sell goods or services shall pay business tax in accordance with regulations.  Last year, namely 2019, for the offshore supplier cases, NTBT’s compliance program regarding supplementary business taxes of the online transaction self-review has contributed up to NT$39.35 million in total, and the number of related fines hits NT$3.59 million.  Moreover, the total amount of taxes levied is more than NT$100 million for the domestic supplier cases, including business tax from past-due declarations and auditing cases.  The number of fines also reaches NT$100 million.  This year NTBT will continue to improve the online transaction relevant reviews.
　　NTBT stated that, to maintain tax fairness, NTBT strives for collecting tax-related information, such as payment flows, cargo flows, and transaction flows, to review whether the offshore or domestic e-commerce supplier files tax returns and pays the tax due in accordance with the regulations.  Recently, NTBT found that several domestic suppliers sold game currency (coin) via the online game platform.  Due to the acquisition of the game currency (coin) requires cash, merchandise, or services as consideration, such game currency (coin) is of a “commodity” nature.  Therefore, those suppliers who get fined are mainly for their delinquency in issuing a uniform invoice based on the full price of the game currency (coin).  NTBT levied NT$8.26 million taxes and imposed higher fines in accordance with either Paragraph 3, Article 51 of the Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act or Article 44 of the Tax Collection Act.
　　NTBT further stated that for an offshore electronic service supplier with annual sales over NT$480,000, one shall apply for the tax registration to the tax authority; for a domestic natural person of a profit-seeking nature with monthly sales via an internet platform not less than legal threshold (namely NT$80,000 for goods or NT$40,000 for services), she or he shall apply for tax registration to the tax authority.  However, a buffer time can be applied for penalty relief as long as the aforementioned person register voluntarily before the end of the following month or within the deadline set by the tax authorities, and then the person might pay the tax due only in accordance with either Article 45 or Subparagraph 1, Paragraph 1, Article 51 of Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act.
　　For the sake of the taxpayer-friendly environment, NTBT urged both offshore and domestic e-commerce suppliers on conducting self-review in regard to mandatory tax registration or to possible under-reported sales and taxes payable.  Before revelation by an informant or before investigation by an investigator appointed by the tax authorities or Ministry of Finance, if taxpayers voluntarily apply for the past-due tax registration and file a supplementary tax declaration with the tax authorities and pay the overdue tax plus the regulated interest, they might be exempt from fines up to 5 times omitted-tax amount.
(Contact：Ms. Lai, Section Head of the Fourth Examination Division; Tel: 886-2-2311-3711 ext. 2550)