KUALA LUMPUR: Digital service providers are in a state of confusion about the tax they will be liable to pay in the future as announced by the Customs Department on Monday. Lazada Malaysia told the New Straits Times that they were already paying the required taxes at the moment. “We would like to clarify that Lazada is a locally-registered service provider, and not a foreign one, and is compliant with all tax laws as required in Malaysia,” they said in a statement today. Customs director-general Datuk T. Subromaniam had on Monday said foreign digital service providers will soon be taxed for their services in Malaysia as authorities look to amend several tax laws. The department, he said, was currently in talks with the Finance Ministry’s Tax Unit to tax these service providers in an effort to level the playing field between foreign and local digital economy players. He then cited examples of Lazada, Uber, Grab and Google as the service providers that may be affected by the new taxing exercise.
Lazada denies it is a foreign service provider while Uber said they were open to engage with the government on the matter. “Uber is open to engaging with the government on the best way forward. We await the final details of such proposed regulatory updates. “Uber is compliant regarding all current taxation requirements in Malaysia,” said Uber Head of Communications (Southeast Asia) Leigh Wong when contacted. Meanwhile, Google when contacted had no statement to make as of yet relating to the future tax. Google Malaysia Communications Manager Zeffri Yusof told the NST that they would just wait for the government to reach out to them.
