E-Commerce Tax Avoidance Leads to Banks Being Tapped as Collectors

Tax authorities want their slice of the billions of dollars of untaxed revenue flowing through platforms like Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. Their plan: To enlist banks, credit card companies and mobile payment providers to help them collect it.

Vietnam is the latest country to require financial institutions, starting July 1, 2020, to remit value-added tax from their clients’ cross-border payments for foreign digital goods and services.

Mexico, Nigeria, Thailand, and others have proposed similar laws that could go into effect next year. The U.K. has been mulling alternative approaches. Argentina and Colombia are among those already looking to financial ...