Aspects of the New Economy. Electronic Commerce Taxability

The present communication is based on two big sections. First of all we make a summary study about the process of economic globalization and fiscal systems. Next, we will face the present and new problem of electronic commerce taxability. The current process of economic globalization - although it is not an exclusive process at present time - is characterized by its support in information and knowledge, which enables the technological revolution we are living in. In fact, the new economy goes around information. Among the positive aspects, we must emphasize a better localization of resources or the access of individuals and companies to a greater supply of goods and services. The ease of agents mobility and the increase of information available at a low cost, are other beneficial aspects we cannot revile. There is also a group of negative aspects to which we will devote our attention: the objective of our study is public sector procedure, particularly in the field of fiscal systems. Among the negative elements which affect government tax collection, we have reflected on the increment of the mobility of individuals and the activities executed, the growing importance of law taxation countries, the creation of new finantial instruments and new methods of canalization of inversions, the increase of multinational trade, the replacement of real money by electronic money or the impotence of the countries to levy a high tax rate on financial capital yield and high remuneration labor yield. The aspects studied, make tax collection teeter as well as alter the principles that rule all fiscal systems to which we will focus our attention. What do we understand by electronic commerce or e-commerce? A first approach to the phenomenon could benefit from the following definition: business transactions, both between companies and between companies and final consumers, based on digitalized data transmission processes, including text, sound and images, made through open and closed networks with possible connections to open networks. The plurality of the sources consulted about the growth rates expected to reach in future years, gives a non-revealing result of rising trend. Considering the present and future potential of this reality we must analyze its effects on certain public sector actuation, especially on those actuations related to government revenues. The analysis of the impact on electronic commerce fiscal systems has to reexamine necessarily some basic principles of international tax laws as fiscal sovereignty, or the ultraterritorial character of the associated fiscal laws. We will mention the different actions of the OECD, the European Union and in particular, the position of the USA. Furthermore, the European Union has achieved a breakthrough in the field of the implications that the new reality of electronic commerce may generate on the value added tax (in fact, electronic commerce is a business transaction). The two aspects that give more problems regarding the viability of the current model of VAT are taxable event localization and the qualification of operations (distinction between goods and services). Once the problems are delimited and before analyzing possible solutions, we will take into account an example of the taxation of these operations according to current regulations.