If you are a freelancer in Peru who finds clients on Upwork or sells gigs on Fiverr, the price your foreign client pays and the amount you receive are now two different numbers with 18% between them. Since December 1, 2024, Peru has required nonresident platforms that provide digital services to individuals — including Upwork, Fiverr, Adobe, and any marketplace for intangibles — to charge, collect, and remit 18% IGV (VAT) on B2C digital services consumed in Peru.
The tax is not new in 2026, but awareness is still low, and the bookkeeping implications for Peruvian freelancers who both pay the VAT as consumers and earn income as suppliers are frequently mishandled. Here is the mature rule as it operates in 2026.
The Rule: Legislative Decree 1623 + Supreme Decree 157-2024-EF
On August 4, 2024, Peru enacted Legislative Decree 1623, establishing 18% VAT on individuals' use of digital services via online platforms and the importation of intangibles via the internet. Supreme Decree No. 157-2024-EF, published August 24, 2024, set the collection mechanics. The original October 1, 2024, effective date was postponed to December 1, 2024, to give nonresident providers time to register.
Key elements:
- Scope is B2C. The obligation applies when the consumer is an individual in Peru who does not carry out business activity. B2B digital services where the Peruvian customer is a business with a RUC generally remain under the reverse-charge mechanism, not the platform withholding model.
- Who withholds. Nonresident digital service providers and sellers of intangibles — Upwork (client-facing fees), Fiverr, Adobe Creative Cloud, Netflix, and similar — must register with SUNAT, add 18% IGV at checkout when the consumer is in Peru, and remit it. The provider is the withholding agent, not the Peruvian consumer or the freelancer as a supplier.
- What is a digital service. Any service made through the internet or technology, essentially automated with minimal human intervention, and delivered electronically — platform access, SaaS, streaming, e-learning, and the platform service fee that Upwork charges to the client are all in scope.
For a Peruvian freelancer who buys platform services — for example, a client who hires you on Upwork and pays Upwork's service fee plus VAT — the 18% is added to the client's invoice and remitted by Upwork. For a Peruvian freelancer who sells through the platform, the VAT on the platform's service charge reduces the net, but the freelancer's own service income remains subject to Peruvian income tax (and, if applicable, to 18% IGV as a supplier if the freelancer is the provider of a digital service to a foreign consumer — a separate analysis).
How It Shows Up on Upwork and Fiverr
On Upwork, a Peruvian client who posts a job and is billed $1,000 in freelancer earnings plus a 10% marketplace fee ($100) will see the fee plus 18% VAT ($18) on the fee. The freelancer receives the $1,000 minus the platform's freelancer-side fee and any applicable withholding that the freelancer's own income tax position triggers. The VAT is not on the freelancer's earnings — it is on the platform's service. Confusing the two is the most common bookkeeping error: treating the VAT as a withholding on the freelancer's income.
On Fiverr, the buyer-facing service fee includes 18% IGV when the buyer is a Peruvian individual. Sellers see the net after Fiverr's take, with the VAT already remitted upstream. If you are a Peruvian seller who also buys deliverables from other sellers (subcontracting), you pay the VAT on those purchases as a consumer.
Adobe's Peru page makes the same point explicitly for SaaS: since December 2024, Adobe adds 18% VAT to every subscription renewal where the purchaser is in Peru.
What Freelancers Must Still File
The platform's VAT withholding does not replace your income tax or your own IGV obligations:
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Income tax. Non-resident platform withholding of IGV does not cover your income tax on freelance earnings. You remain subject to fourth-category (self-employment) or third-category (business) income tax depending on how you are registered, with monthly advance payments and an annual return. The platform is not your income tax withholding agent for your earnings — it is your VAT collection agent for its own service.
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IGV as a supplier. If you provide digital services to consumers abroad from Peru, consider whether you are now a digital service provider in the reverse direction. Peru's digital services VAT is import-focused, but export treatment and place-of-supply rules determine whether you must charge IGV to foreign consumers or zero-rate — get a determination rather than assuming.
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Expense deductibility. The 18% IGV you pay as a consumer on platform services is generally not recoverable as input VAT unless you are an IGV-registered business that can credit input VAT against output VAT. For many freelancers on the simplified regimes, the 18% is a cost, not a credit. Record it as a platform fee plus tax, not as a single fee, so profitability by channel is accurate.
A Reconciliation Checklist
- Platform invoices show IGV separately — verify the 18% is broken out, not blended
- Freelancer earnings are recorded gross, with platform fees and IGV recorded as separate expenses
- Income tax advances are computed on net freelance income, not on the VAT-inclusive platform invoice
- If you subcontract via the same platforms, input IGV on those purchases is tracked separately from the IGV the platform remitted on your sales fees
Simplify Your Financial Management
Peru's 18% digital services VAT now touches every platform fee a Peruvian freelancer pays or charges — native, automatic, and invisible if you do not break it out. Beancount.io keeps every platform invoice, every 18% IGV line, and every income tax advance in plain-text, version-controlled detail — so SUNAT's Letter 1623 compliance is provable and your true take-home is visible. Get started for free and keep your cross-border freelance finances as global as your clients.