Asia Tax Bulletin – Autumn 2020

This edition contains news on various recent tax developments in East and Southeast Asia. One development in particular has been dominating the headlines: the introduction, in a number of jurisdictions, of an indirect tax liability on digital goods and services (e-books, music, movies, computer software, games, online advertising, etc.) supplied by overseas businesses. Over the past few months Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have come out with measures to tax overseas businesses. You will find more about them in this edition of the Bulletin. On another headline note, Indonesia, Korea and Malaysia have seen developments in connection with the Multilateral Agreement (MLI) aimed at avoiding abuse of tax treaties and shipping businesses are looking into the potential consequences of the US’ unilateral termination of its shipping tax treaty with Hong Kong.