Taxing the Digital Economy
Theory, Policy and Practice

Highly digitalised businesses threaten the viability of the international corporate tax system. Can a new system overcome these challenges?

Craig Elliffe (Author)

9781108485241, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 May 2021

250 pages
15 x 23 x 2.5 cm, 0.67 kg

'There is no 'hotter' topic on the agenda of the international tax regime than the taxation of the digital economy … The book is an important and timely resource for whomever wishes to study the issue.' Yariv Brauner, British Tax Review

The question of how to tax multinational companies that operate highly digitalised business models is one of the most contested areas of international taxation. The tax paid in the jurisdictions in which these companies operate has not kept pace with their immense growth and the OECD has proposed a new international tax compromise that will allocate taxing rights to market jurisdictions and remove the need to have a physical presence in the taxing jurisdictions in order to sustain taxability. In this work, Craig Elliffe explains the problems with the existing international tax system and its inability to respond to challenges posed by digitalised companies. In addition to looking at how the new international tax rules will work, Elliffe assesses their likely effectiveness and highlights features that are likely to endure in the next waves of international tax reform.

Part I: 1. Taxing cross-border business income
2. The development of digital business
3. Challenges to the tax system posed by the digitalisation of business
4. Responding to the challenges: legal constraints on any changes to the current framework
Part II: 5. The OECD secretariat's and inclusive framework's proposals for multilateral reforms
6. Examining the proposals for multilateral reforms
7. Implementing the proposals for multilateral reforms
8. The influence of alternative policy strategies on the 2020s compromise
9. Interim solutions and long term reforms
Index.

Subject Areas: IT & Communications law [LNQ], Comparative law [LAM], Information technology industries [KNTX], Taxation [KFFD1]