The Yuanlin Office, National Taxation Bureau of the Central Area, Ministry of Finance (hereinafter referred to as the Office), stated that domestic business entities and domestic individuals purchasing cross-border electronic services from foreign suppliers (such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, etc.) are required to declare and pay business tax in accordance with the Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Business Tax Act) and the relevant regulations governing the taxation of cross-border electronic service transactions.
The Office explained that where a business entity purchases online marketing advertisements, online services, or similar services from a foreign supplier, institution, or organization, the purchaser of the services shall declare and pay the business tax in accordance with Article 36 of the Business Tax Act.
The Office further explained that the tax treatment applicable to purchasers of cross-border electronic services from foreign suppliers varies depending on the type of purchaser, as outlined in the table below.
| Purchaser of services | Method of filing and payment |
| General tax computation business entities | If the purchased services are used for the sale of taxable goods or services, the business tax is exempted; however, the purchasers are still required to report the payment amount in Column 74 of the business tax return within 15 days from the beginning of the next period following the payment of remuneration. |
| Dual-status business entities |
Within 15 days from the beginning of the next period following the payment of remuneration, the purchasers shall calculate the business tax payable based on the applicable tax rate prescribed in Article 10 of the Business Tax Act (currently 5%), and compute and pay the tax in accordance with the Regulations for the Computation of Business Tax for Dual-Status Business Entities. |
| Small-scale business entities,organizations, and institutions |
Before the 15th day of the next period following the payment of remuneration, the purchaser shall calculate the business tax based on the tax rate prescribed in Article 10 of the Business Tax Act (currently 5%) and pay the tax by filing the Business Tax Payment Form for the Purchase of Foreign Services (Form 408). |
| Domestic individuals |
Where a foreign supplier sells cross-border electronic services to natural persons within the territory of the Republic of China and its annual sales amounts exceed a prescribed threshold (NT$600,000 starting from 2025), it shall complete business registration in accordance with Article 28-1 of the Business Tax Act, and the overseas e-commerce enterprise shall issue cloud-based uniform invoices to the domestic individuals. |
The Office would like to remind purchasers of cross-border electronic services from foreign suppliers to fully understand the relevant regulations. In the event that business tax has not been duly declared and paid due to negligence, if the taxpayer voluntarily files a supplementary return and pays the outstanding tax along with accrued interest to the competent tax authority before any report, investigation, or audit conducted by the tax authority or investigators designated by the Ministry of Finance, penalties may be exempted pursuant to Article 48-1 of the Tax Collection Act.
If you have any questions, please call the toll-free service number 0800-000321 for consultation, and we will do our best to serve you.
Contact person: Sales Tax Section, Mr. Huang
Tel: (04)8332100 ext. 302.