| OCRA's
E-Commerce Consulting and Implementation Services
What is E-Commerce?
Electronic Commerce is the exchange of business
information via an electronic format, such as Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI), electronic mail (e-mail), electronic bulletin
boards, and electronic funds transfer. E-Commerce technologies
are designed to replace traditional paper based workflow with
faster, more efficient and reliable communications between computers.
The infrastructure for EC is networked computing,
which is emerging as the standard computing environment in business,
home and government. Networked computing connects several computers
and other electronic devices by telecommunication networks. This
allows users to access information stored in several places and
to communicate and collaborate with others from their desktop
computers. The vast majority of people use computers connected
to a global networked environment known as the Internet, or its
counterpart within organisations, called Intranet.
The lower levels of Electronic Commerce are concerned
with a basic network presence, company promotion, and pre- and
post-sales support. By using available "off-the-shelf"
technologies, these levels can be both cheap and straightforward
to implement, as thousands of small companies can already testify.
By contrast, the more advanced forms of E-Commerce pose complex
problems that are as much legal and cultural as technological.
At these levels there are no "of-the-shelf" solutions,
so companies are forced to develop their own custom systems. Thus
at present it trends to be only the larger and richer companies
that are pioneering these levels. However, over time the boundary
of what is commonplace will gradually move to encompass the more
complex levels of Electronic Commerce and further "off-the-shelf"
technologies will be established to support these higher levels,
just as they have been for the lower levels.
OCRA London provides a full range of Electronic
Commerce consulting and implementation services that help companies
build successful Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer
E-Commerce Ventures. Please contact Michael Clifford at michaelc@ocra.com.
Facts and figures
.
If you are an e-commerce company or an electronic merchant, you may be
contemplating about taking your taxable presence into a low tax country,
to minimise your company’s or groups indirect and direct taxation liabilities.
- Do you wish to increase profits and sales
- Do you wish to reduce your global tax burden
- Do you wish to reduce your group's VAT commitments
Background.
Strong economic growth and low unemployment in major economies such as the United
States has led to difficulties for retailers. They find it increasingly hard to
recruit staff of the calibre they require, and there are mounting upward pressures
on wages and benefits in the retail sector. This leads to loss of competitiveness,
failing customer service standards, and merchandising problems.
E-commerce provides the consumer with a new way to shop, which does not require a
visit to a congested, bewildering shopping mall, encountering traffic and parking
problems along the way. It is often easier to 'shop around' and compare prices on the
Internet. Distribution channels are so well developed in the major economies that next
day delivery is expected and achieved cheaply and efficiently. An e-business will normally
utilise IT systems to a greater extent than a conventional retailer, and may also benefit
from considerable supply chain rationalisation. Efficiency and scalability are the key
words to success in an e-retailing business, but tax-efficiency presents the greatest
opportunities of all.
Taxation of e-commerce.
Because of its global nature, e-commerce presents great challenges for tax systems.
Most tax systems have traditionally relied on the retailer to collect taxes, and then
pay them to the taxman. Tax systems are not geared up to collect small amounts of tax
from millions of transactions.
In accordance to the OECD model treaty internet sales are taxable in the country in
which the sale is effected. If your server is offshore and the payment takes place
offshore i.e. via a on-line credit card payment then the transaction will be deemed
to take place offshore and thus will be tax resident offshore.
In short, this means ecommerce entrepreneurs will save firstly indirect taxation such
as sales tax in the US and VAT at varying rates in the EU, and secondly on direct
taxation of profits.
How we can help.
We run an e-commerce centre in Mauritius, where we provide services to:
- E-commerce companies
- E distributors
- Electronic merchants
- IT purchasers for large companies
- E Branches
We provide the following services individually or as fully supported
and administered packages:
- Server hosting including branch server hosting
- Offshore and onshore Web site hosting, design and maintenance
- Facilitating Merchant Account for offshore entities
- International tax planning
- Company formation and administration
- Multi currency secure credit card transaction for offshore
and onshore entities
Goods. Products (tangibles)
distributed from outside the EU into the EU not exceeding a
value of 80 Euros per order.
Pricing.
The following prices are guidelines for comparison purposes.
If you have a particular request please contact us directly outlining
your requirements.
Co-location facilities also available, please
enquire.
|
