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By Felicity Ussher, 16 December 1999 00:30

NEWS Negotiations on electronic taxation are gearing up behind the scenes, despite the inconclusive talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Seattle last week. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has leapt into the fray on behalf of the European E-business Tax Group (EeTG), which aims to set up a single VAT registrar for Europe. The group includes Cisco, DHL, Ericsson, France Telecom, GE Capital, IBM, ICL and Microsoft. The EeTG's proposal is the first to offer more details on the EC's working paper on e-taxation, released in June. The EC proposed that online commerce be taxed at the point of consumption. The debate has scarcely moved on since then - and the confusion at the WTO summit earlier this month did little to help matters. But the EeTG goes one step further, and attempts to resolve the crucial issue of how VAT can be collected from non-registered US companies selling in Europe. Marc Joostens, senior consultant at PwC, told Silicon.com: "We'll be approaching all EU member governments to discuss the possibility of a single place for VAT registration. Alternatively, all VAT compliance could be outsourced to a single bank or trusted third party - even a US one." But David Holmes, HM Customs' head of process supply, said a single place of registration would not work unless VAT rates were harmonised across Europe. "This is not something member states would want. Every country has a different VAT rate, and many governments - including the UK's - already have a policy against VAT harmonisation." The EeTG's business leaders are sure they can convince member states to unify their VAT tax collection, in the name of efficient ecommerce. The group hopes to have definite results by the OECD's Paris summit in February 2000.