Malaysia had two attempts since 2005 to introduce a consumption tax, and on the third and finally successful attempt, its Goods and Services Tax Act 2014 took effect from April 2015. Similarly, Australia's path to a broad‑based consumption tax was hard fought, with three attempts to 1981 by...

The taxation of financial services is one of the most vexing aspects of a VAT. Conceptually, VAT should apply to any fee for service but where financial services are concerned there is a difficulty in identifying the taxable amount, ie the value added by financial institutions. As a result, most...