January 2026 tax headlines: global VAT news

Here is our round-up of all the newest tax snippets from January 2026 – featuring news of rate changes, regulatory updates and reclassifications across the world.

HMRCHis Majesty's Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes. have reset UK VAT grouping policy, moving away from EU-derived case law and allowing overseas establishments to be treated as part of a UK VAT group – significantly reducing cross-border VAT friction and reopening opportunities to reclaim overpaid VAT.

Germany

The German Ministry of Finance has issued draft tax amendments for permanent 7% reduced VAT rate for food sales by hospitality businesses.

Denmark

Denmark has fully implemented its Digital Bookkeeping Act in 2026, requiring electronic accounting and invoicing for about 118,000 more businesses from 1^st January.

In-house bookkeeping systems have a transition period until 1^st July 2026 to achieve compliance.

China

China announced temporary tax incentives to support the pilot program domestic issuance of CDRs by innovative enterprises.

Canada

From 1^st January 2026, Manitoba expanded its retail sales tax to cover cloud computing services, regardless of server location or download. The province estimates the change will raise around CAD 16 million per year and reduce distortions between local and foreign providers.

New Zealand

A timeline has been set for mandatory B2GCommerce between business to government. e-invoicingElectronic invoicing - widely referred to as e-invoicing - is the exchange of a digital document between a supplier and a buyer. E-invoices are issued, transmitted and received in a structured data format that enabled automatic and electronic processing. They contain data in a machine-readable format so that an AP system can read an invoice without manual data entry, leading to faster and more efficient invoicing.. A phased of implementation from January 2026 (government agencies) to January 2027 (large suppliers with revenue above NZD 33 million in each of the last two years.

Brazil

Brazil’s major VAT implementation began at the start of the year with an initial pilot phase, embedding the new CBS (federal) and IBS (state/municipal) consumption taxes directly into e-invoicing and day-to-day compliance.

In 2026 –

CBS (federal VAT) introduced at 0.9%, and IBS (state/municipal VAT) at 0.1%, for testing only.
Existing taxes remain in force
Businesses can offset CBS/IBS amounts against PIS, COFINS, or other federal liabilities.

Croatia

Mandatory e-invoicing B2G and B2B – between resident businesses; e-reporting submissions of invoices not subject to e-invoicing mandate. Non VAT registered businesses must be able to accept e-invoices.

UAE

From 14^th January, VAT on qualifying scrap-metal supplies between VAT-registered businesses in the UAE shifted from the supplier to the customer under a mandatory reverse chargeWhen the Reverse Charge (mechanism) is in effect, the recipient of goods or services assumes responsibility for reporting both the purchase and the supplier’s sale in their VAT return..