Tony Salvador, Third World Network, Trade Justice Pilipinas

At the UN Conference on Trade and Development's E-Commerce week, PSI co-hosted a Panel Forum on Sustainable Tax Policy in the Digital Era:Implications of Technology-Enabled Trade.

The expansion of digital trade will have major implications for development-related tax policy. In the OECD, G20, the UN, and governments around the world are seeking solutions to tax avoidance and profit shifting which are estimated to cost developing countries over $500 billion annually, severely constraining their ability to meet their domestic financing needs to achieve the SDGs. At the same time that excessive tariffs can act as an inefficient barrier to trade, customs revenue can be part of a broad mix of government revenues essential for ensuring quality accessible public services and a well-functioning society, particularly in developing countries.
Given the expansion of technology-enabled trade, an increasingly digitalized economy will have further implications for global taxation: in an online services work platform, in which the corporate headquarters, the labour, the purchase, and the delivery occur in different tax jurisdictions, where is profit recorded and tax assessed? What would be the potential implications of current proposals in the WTO, such as extending the moratorium on tariffs on e-transmissions; raising de minimis, and banning countries from being able to require companies to have a local presence in countries in which they are providing digitalized services, on global taxation?
The session covered some of the following topics:
• How would current proposals in e-commerce and the digital trade generally potentially impact tax policy in developed and developing countries?
• How would current proposals in the WTO with regards to a permanent moratorium on tariffs on e-transmissions, and an increase in the de minimis levels, affect customs revenue?
• What efforts are currently being made in the OECD and the United Nations to improve fairness in global tax collection, and how would they be impacted by increased digital trade?
• If the digital economy contributes to further erosion of the tax base of developing and developed countries, how will they be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? How will the developing and developed countries guarantee quality, accessible public services, and the social protection coverage that is required for stable societies?
• What other mechanisms could governments contemplate for improving fairness in tax policy globally, including mechanisms affecting trade policy?

свернуть