In recent months, France and the United Kingdom have announced new taxes that are designed to target large multinational tech companies. In response, the United States has threatened trade sanctions. This article introduces the larger context of this controversy. The French and UK taxes are merely two examples of a much larger trend that has been taking place over the last several years, with countries around the world designing tax measures to target the so-called "digital economy" without ever determining what the digital economy is or how it differs from the rest of the economy. This article argues that, despite the many differences between the dozens of digital tax measures proposed or implemented over the past decade, two fundamental similarities link them together. First, all of these measures illustrate that countries believe that the current international tax system, which was designed in the 1920s under the auspices of the League of Nations, is outdated and needs to be reformed. Second, these digital tax measures focus on three elements of the existing system that countries believe need to be reformed: the physical presence requirement, the low tax rates available in some countries, and the ability of multinationals in particular to earn income without having a physical presence or to shift income to low-tax jurisdictions. Given these areas of agreement, this article considers the likelihood of countries reaching an international solution. This article acknowledges that an effective international solution - where countries agree to the necessary technical details and not just to high-level principles - faces serious challenges given that many countries now benefit from the current system. This article concludes that, if countries cannot agree to real international reform, then the international tax system will face many more years of countries imposing a cascade of inconsistent and overlapping digital tax measures on tech companies.

In March 2018, the European Commission presented its 'Digital Taxation Package', which included not only a longterm solution in the form of a 'significant digital presence', but also a short-term proposal for a 'digital services tax'. This article provides an overview of the current status of the proposals and the future of digital taxation in the EU.

The ever-increasing digitalization of businesses has accelerated the need to address the many shortcomings and unresolved issues within the international corporate income tax system. In particular, the customer or “user”—through their online activities—is now considered by many as being a critical driving force behind the value of digital services. Furthermore, the rapid growth of digital service providers over the last decade has made them an increasingly popular target for special taxes—similar to wealth and solidarity taxes—which can also help mobilize much-needed revenues in the wake of a crisis. This paper argues that a plausible conceptual case can be made to tax the value generated by users under the corporate income tax. However, a number of issues need to be tackled for user-based tax measures to become a reality, which include agreement among countries on whether user value justifies a reallocation of taxing rights, establishing the legal right to tax income derived from user value, as well as an appropriate metric for valuing user-generated data if it is ever to be used as a tax base. Furthermore, attempting to tax only certain types of business is ill-advised, especially as user data is now being exploited widely enough for it to be recognized as an input for almost all businesses. Several options present themselves for consideration—from a modified permanent establishment definition combined with taxation by formulary apportionment, to user-based royalty-type taxes—each with their own merits and misdemeanors.

The book describes the difficulties of the current international corporate income tax system. It starts by describing its origins and how changes, such as the development of multinational enterprises and digitalization have created fundamental problems, not foreseen at its inception. These include tax competition—as governments try to attract tax bases through low tax rates or incentives, and profit shifting, as companies avoid tax by reporting profits in jurisdictions with lower tax rates. The book then discusses solutions, including both evolutionary changes to the current system and fundamental reform options. It covers both reform efforts already under way, for example under the Inclusive Framework at the OECD, and potential radical reform ideas developed by academics.

Digital technology allows businesses to operate in a country without a physical presence, which poses challenges for traditional taxation. The digital debate focuses on direct taxation and the creation of new taxing rights arising from the tax claims of market jurisdictions on income obtained by foreign digital suppliers conducting business therein without any physical presence. Tax Theory Applied to the Digital Economy analyzes the tax-disruptive aspects of digital business models and reviews current tax initiatives in light of traditional tax theory principles. The analysis concludes that market countries’ tax claims are unsubstantiated and contravene the most basic foundations of tax theory, giving rise to a series of legal, economic, tax policy, and tax administration issues that policy makers cannot overlook. The authors propose establishing a digital data tax (DDT) that is a license-type consumption tax, rather than an income tax, on the international supply of Internet bandwidth to access digital markets. The DDT can be applied either globally or unilaterally, and could become a significant source of tax revenues for market jurisdictions. It is aligned with tax principles and it does not conflict with other tax initiatives: the DDT taxes foreign digital companies as consumers, while income tax proposals tax them as suppliers. The authors also propose creating a new global internet tax agency (GITA) under the auspices of the United Nations that would provide a neutral forum for political discussion and technical assistance in the area of digital taxation. The digital economy is a global phenomenon that requires a global solution: the creation of global taxing mechanisms and global institutions that provide technical assistance and support for successful global implementation. The book explains difficult technical concepts in plain language and contributes to the digital tax debate in a way that can be understood by anyone. Such understanding is essential to obtaining global support, achieving tax compliance, and fostering multilateral tax cooperation.

Tax tech companies are rapidly gaining ground as global tax advisory firms, and are set to fundamentally change and revolutionize the way tax administrations, taxpayers, and their advisers interact, ushering in a much more efficient and effective integration of tax services into the processes used by both taxpayers and tax authorities. The distinguished contributors to this book clearly explain not only how tax law can be revised to promote digitization and speed up its implementation but also how to achieve better tax compliance and administration at a lower cost. The authors cover such aspects of this veritable paradigm shift in tax management as the following: how new technologies improve existing VAT/GST systems; uses of artificial intelligence; secured certification of taxpayers; electronic invoices; securing real-time reporting with cryptography; taxing virtual currencies; enhanced personal data protection; fewer opportunities to engage in aggressive tax practices; competitive advantage in attracting investment; work-flow assessment; and more opportunities for information flows and collaboration. Because the perspective as to what is meant by tax compliance is already overlaid by technological pressure--as indicated especially by BEPS 1.0's domestic tax law initiatives and its recommendations of newly developed options to secure full transparency of tax processes--it is clear that controls and tax risk management are on the rise and that systems will become more digitized. For these reasons, professionals in the tax advisory industry and tax authority officials will welcome this book's sound and practical measures leading to progress and revitalization through digital transformation.

Digitalization in Asia is pervasive, unique, and growing. It stands out by its sheer scale, with internet users far exceeding numbers in other regions. This facilitates e-commerce in markets that are large by international standards, supported by innovative payment systems and featuring major corporate players, including a number of large, home-grown, highly digitalized businesses (tech giants) that rival US multinational enterprises (MNEs) in size. Opportunity for future growth exists, as a significant population share remains unconnected.