The year was 1954. In an attempt to reduce tax evasion, France introduced a new scheme which since has been adopted by more than 160 countries, the Goods and Services Tax. With an aim to introduce the concept of One Nation, One Tax, India recently joined the GST bandwagon to unite indirect taxes under one umbrella. In light of India’s newest entry, let’s take a look at how the GST taxes are levied around the world.
Just like the Indian Constitution, the GST has also drawn inspiration from other countries. The dual GST system which allows both levels of the Government to levy and collect taxes is similar to that applied in Canada and Brazil. In Canada, the Goods and Service tax is levied by the Federal government while the State levies the Provincial sales taxes ranging from zero to ten percent. Brazil also follows a similar structure with the Federal tax imposed by the center varies from 17% to 18% and the State tax varies between 4% and 255.
In India, however, GST is broken into four slabs between 5,12,18 and 28 percent but there are seven categories of taxes in total. While 75% of goods and services fall under the blanket tax of 18% certain commodities and services can be charged with 28% tax rates. In a majority of the countries around the world, a single central GST tax is levied sticking to the concept of One Nation, One Tax. Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Mauritius, South Africa and the United Kingdom to name a few have only one tax rate across the country.
A strong reason behind India having a dual GST structure lies in the irregular distribution of finances with the majority of the population still living in rural areas. Another notable difference is the GST is payable at the final point of consumption meaning that current taxable events such as manufacturing of goods and rendition of services will not be relevant under the new regime.
The United States of America, despite being a major economy in the world does not have GST as States have high autonomy in taxation. Australia had one of the most smooth implementations of GST in 2000 with a rate fixed at 10%. Malaysia joined the GST bandwagon with 6% rate in 2015, after 26 years of debate. France levies GST at the rate of 19.6% today, while the GST rate in the United Kingdom is 20%.
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May 27, 2025 at 5:50 am
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