Citizens should be able to communicate and transact with government institutions electronically. A good example of this is the UK Government's incentivising of UK citizens to return taxation details and to pay tax electronically. The following are a sample of the problem areas Vodafone is currently aware of. Crucial business decisions are being taken now with a view to services being launched within a few months but there are still no clear guidelines on VAT treatment. The issue must be pushed to the top of the agenda, rather than being dealt with only at the six monthly OECD meetings.
Speed is essential.
Businesses are currently working in a void when determining the treatment of new types of supplies and payment collection. If the EU does eventually implement general rules or specific guidance, businesses will be forced to pay for costly operational and systems changes. Neither should UK business be put at a competitive disadvantage to, say, US business because of VAT legislation. However, until legislation is passed, non-EU businesses can easily provide digitised services VAT free. Digitised services are those which can be downloaded from the Internet.