Taxing the Digital Economy: Theory, Policy and Practice [Hardcover]

Highly digitalised businesses threaten the viability of the international corporate tax system. Can a new system overcome these challenges?In dealing with digital companies, the international tax world is at a crossroads: reform will either involve unilateral country-by-country digital services taxes, or a consensus-driven multilateral new 2020s compromise developed by the OECD. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of the OECD's proposed reforms.In dealing with digital companies, the international tax world is at a crossroads: reform will either involve unilateral country-by-country digital services taxes, or a consensus-driven multilateral new 2020s compromise developed by the OECD. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of the OECD's proposed reforms.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 frl��