Transformation of the digital economy into the national tax systems of foreign countries

The relevance of this article is due to the practical purpose of studying the foreign experience of taxation with a view to further use in the process of improving the Russian mechanism of the tax system. Existing differences in tax legislation in many countries allow international corporations to use a variety of ways to avoid paying enough taxes. The organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) has been fighting such corporate tax crimes for several years, but has not always offered solutions that address the potential negative consequences for developing countries. To this end, the BEPS plan was developed in 2013 and finally adopted in 2015. It is a list of OECD measures to counteract the erosion of the tax base and the removal of multinational companies from taxation. The article considers international projects based on global monitoring the tax services of various States and current trends in the development and improvement of the tax administrating in accordance with the requirements of the BEPS plan and the digital economy. Those measures are presented in the article as a system for adapting the tax service to new ways of doing business based on the developing digital economy. At the same time, two issues of tax adaptation are solved. First, how to determine the tax presence in a given tax jurisdiction. Second, what is the role of the data and users and their dependence on intangible assets that characterize new digital business models, how and where the final product or service is created. In conclusion, the authors formulate recommendations for the organization of effective and efficient taxation of participants in the production process in the digital economy: it is necessary to secure taxpayers against unnecessary costs associated with tax administrating; the introduction of a fair approach to economic entities over a proportional tax burden; promote legal and regulatory certainty; comply with the principles of free competition in the absence of whatsoever protectionist measures on the part of the state; mitigate the impact on countries with weak economies.

1. Arkhipova, N.I. and Gurieva, M.T. (2018), “Modern trends in the development of digital marketing”, RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. “Economics. Management. Law” Series, no. 1 (11), pp. 9-21.

2. Makhalina, O., Makhalin, V. (2018), “Managing challenges and threats in the digital economy of Russia”, Management. Scientific and practical journal, no. 2, pp. 57-61.

3. Makhalina, O., Makhalin, V. (2020), “Digitalization of business increases the cost of information security”, Management. Scientific and practical journal, no. 1, pp. 134-141.

4. Martin, T.W. and Schechner, S. (2018), “Facebook, Google May Face Billions in New Taxes Across Asia, Latin America: Europe’s proposal to impose a new tax on tech giants is inspiring other governments”, The Wall Street Journal, 28 October, available at: https://www.wsj.com/ (Accessed 2 February 2020).

5. Orlova, A. (2019) International projects for the development of tax administration[International projects for the development of tax administration.], Taxes and Finance, no. 3 (43), p. 30-34.

6. Pushkareva, N. (2018), “All or nothing. Competition in international taxation and effect of the 15th BEPS plan”, Taxes and Finance, no. 4 (40), pp. 37-41.

7. Pushkareva, N. (2019), “BEPS and economic inequality. Risks and opportunities”, Taxes and Finance, no. 3 (43), pp. 7-10.