The State Tax Committee (STC) of Uzbekistan says Google Commerce Limited has paid 85,000 euros in the value added tax (VAT) in Uzbekistan for the first quarter of this year, according to Fergana news agency.
Thus, it has become the first foreign Internet company to pay VAT Internet after Uzbekistan has applied a new tax on large tech companies.
The tax was introduced in January this year. All foreign companies offering services through Internet are obligated to pay VAT at a rate of 15%.
The STC has created an online VAT office for foreign internet companies. The site will address Value Added Tax payments for earnings from software, mobile applications and games, E-books, movies, music and others. All foreign internet companies that work in the country, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Yandex, Netflix and Spotify, should obtain taxpayer status using the new online platform, Kursiv.kz reported on February 13, 2002.
Registration has begun this month and Germany’s Cleverbridge AG has been the first to be registered.
By April 23, the list has been replenished with eight more companies: Xsolla Inc; Google Voice Inc; Google Commerce Limited; Apple Distribution International Limited; Google Ireland Limited; Activision Blizzard International BV; Netflix International B.V.; and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
According to the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan, there are 22 million internet users in the country.
