The Ukrainian parliament Verkhovna Rada is considering a bill on taxing foreign electronic communication services.
Quoting Channel 24, Mediasat reports that it would see services like Facebook, Netflix and Amazon have to pay VAT at 20%.
It adds that such a move was first mooted by the government in January this year but six months later a clause concerning the regulation of foreign services and social networks was removed from the draft law “On Media”.
Foreign public services such as Amazon or Netflix were excluded from the list of platforms subject to regulation in Ukraine and thus avoided taxation.
Now, however, a bill with essentially similar requirements has been submitted to the Rada. It will supplement the Tax Code on Taxation of Electronic Services.
Significantly, under the terms of the proposed legislation foreign advertising will remain exempt from the tax.