SARS Targets Porn Sites for VAT Payments

SOUTH AFRICA—The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is putting people on notice that it intends to start charging VAT payments for online services, including subscriptions to porn sites! iol.co.za reported today, "From June, Sars wants VAT payments on all electronic services—and that’s everything from that online course you signed up for and the international newspaper electronic subscription you bought, to the paid access to porn sites on the other side of the world." Yes, you read that correctly; no matter where the porn site... er, electronic service... is located, SARS wants its value added tax, which the seller is responsible for paying. “Yes, the foreign supplier will have to register as a VAT vendor,” said National Treasury spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane, though iol.co.za was quick to point out, "It’s not yet clear how Sars will enforce this."   Specifically, the new Electronic Services regulation applies “to any supply of electronic services in the course or furtherance of an enterprise carried on by a person from a place in an export country: (a) to a recipient that is a resident of the Republic; or (b) where any payment to that person in respect of such electronic services originates from a bank registered or authorized in terms of the Banks Act, 1990." Currently, the VAT is set at 14 percent.