IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tiu/tiucen/46537bf7-4822-4dbe-b3fa-f64306f6fe45.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Consumption Taxation in a Digital World : A Primer

Author

Listed:
  • Ligthart, J.E.

    (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research)

Abstract

The paper reviews the economic and administrative issues that arise in the taxation of electronic commerce; addresses how best to meet the criteria of an ideal tax system; and examines recent policy developments.It is argued that destination-based taxation-is presently the norm for goods taxation is technically more complex for digital products and intangible services sold over the Internet, reflecting the difficulty of determining the location of the buyer and seller.Most of the potential solutions to this problem require a great deal of administrative cooperation between national tax authorities.Case studies of several countries show that policy responses to electronic commerce have di.ered, with the European Union taking the lead on implementing a system of destination-based registration.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from anothe
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Ligthart, J.E., 2004. "Consumption Taxation in a Digital World : A Primer," Discussion Paper 2004-102, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:tiu:tiucen:46537bf7-4822-4dbe-b3fa-f64306f6fe45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/629396/102.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce, Donald & Fox, William F., 2000. "E-Commerce in the Context of Declining State Sales Tax Bases," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 4), pages 1373-90, December.
    2. Mr. Michael Keen, 2000. "VIVAT, CVAT and All That: New Forms of Value-Added Tax for Federal Systems," IMF Working Papers 2000/083, International Monetary Fund.
    3. McLure, Charles E. Jr., 1997. "Electronic Commerce, State Sales Taxation, and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(4), pages 731-749, December.
    4. Schuknecht, Ludger & Pérez-Esteve, Rosa, 1999. "A quantitative assessment of electronic commerce," WTO Staff Working Papers ERAD-99-01, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    5. Goolsbee, Austan & Zittrain, Jonathan, 1999. "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Taxing Internet Commerce," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(3), pages 413-428, September.
    6. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production: I--Production Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 8-27, March.
    7. Murray, Matthew N., 1997. "Would Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance Undermine a National Retail Sales Tax?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(1), pages 167-82, March.
    8. Lockwood, Ben, 2001. "Tax competition and tax co-ordination under destination and origin principles: a synthesis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 279-319, August.
    9. Hellerstein, Walter, 1997. "Transaction Taxes and Electronic Commerce: Designing State Taxes That Work in an Interstate Environment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(3), pages 593-606, September.
    10. Murray, Matthew N., 1997. "Would Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance Undermine a National Retail Sales Tax?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(1), pages 167-182, March.
    11. Fox, William F. & Murray, Matthew N., 1997. "The Sales Tax and Electronic Commerce: So What's New?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(3), pages 573-92, September.
    12. McLure, Charles E. Jr., 1997. "Electronic Commerce, State Sales Taxation, and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(4), pages 731-49, December.
    13. Wilson, John Douglas & Wildasin, David E., 2004. "Capital tax competition: bane or boon," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1065-1091, June.
    14. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production II: Tax Rules," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(3), pages 261-278, June.
    15. Fox, William F. & Murray, Matthew N., 1997. "The Sales Tax and Electronic Commerce: So What's New?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(3), pages 573-592, September.
    16. Shy,Oz, 2001. "The Economics of Network Industries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521800952.
    17. Zodrow, George R, 2003. "Network Externalities and Indirect Tax Preferences for Electronic Commerce," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(1), pages 79-97, January.
    18. Richard Bird & Pierre-Pascal Gendron, 2000. "CVAT, VIVAT, and Dual VAT: Vertical ``Sharing'' and Interstate Trade," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 7(6), pages 753-761, December.
    19. Goolsbee, Austan & Klenow, Peter J, 2002. "Evidence on Learning and Network Externalities in the Diffusion of Home Computers," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 317-343, October.
    20. Whalley, John, 1979. "Uniform domestic tax rates, trade distortions and economic integration," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 213-221, March.
    21. Goolsbee, Austan & Zittrain, Jonathan, 1999. "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Taxing Internet Commerce," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 3), pages 413-28, September.
    22. repec:zbw:wtowps:99-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Besley, Timothy J. & Rosen, Harvey S., 1999. "Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(2), pages 157-178, June.
    24. Bacchetta, Marc & Low, Patrick & Mattoo, Aaditya & Schuknecht, Ludger & Wager, Hannu & Wehrens, Madelon, 1998. "Electronic commerce and the role of the WTO," WTO Special Studies, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division, volume 2, number 2.
    25. Soete, Luc & Weel, Bas, 1998. "Globalization, Tax Erosion and the Internet," Research Memorandum 022, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    26. Dixit, Avinash, 1985. "Tax policy in open economies," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 313-374, Elsevier.
    27. Mr. Vito Tanzi, 2000. "Globalization, Technological Developments, and the Work of Fiscal Termites," IMF Working Papers 2000/181, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wolfram F. Richter, 2018. "Taxing Direct Sales of Digital Services: A Plea for Regulated and Internationally Coordinated Profit Splitting," CESifo Working Paper Series 7017, CESifo.
    2. Wolfram F. Richter, 2019. "The Economics of the Digital Services Tax," CESifo Working Paper Series 7863, CESifo.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Austan Goolsbee, 2001. "The Implications of Electronic Commerce for Fiscal Policy (and Vice Versa)," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 13-23, Winter.
    2. Austan Goolsbee, 2000. "Internet Commerce, Tax Sensitivity, and the Generation Gap," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 14, pages 45-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Austan Goolsbee, 1998. "In a World Without Borders: The Impact of Taxes on Internet Commerce," NBER Working Papers 6863, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Donald Bruce & William Fox & Matthew Murray, 2003. "To Tax Or Not To Tax? The Case Of Electronic Commerce," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(1), pages 25-40, January.
    5. Beem, Richard & Bruce, Donald, 2021. "Failure to launch: Measuring the impact of sales tax nexus standards on business activity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    6. Charles E. McLure, Jr., 2002. "Thinking Straight about the Taxation of Electronic Commerce: Tax Principles, Compliance Problems, and Nexus," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 16, pages 115-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Andrej Cupák & Peter Tóth, 2017. "Measuring the Efficiency of VAT reforms: Evidence from Slovakia," Working and Discussion Papers WP 6/2017, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.
    8. Michael Keen, 1997. "Peculiar institutions: A British perspective on tax policy in the United States," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 371-400, November.
    9. Kudrle, Robert T., 2021. "Moves and countermoves in the digitization challenges to international taxation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Cintra, Marcos, 2009. "Bank transactions: pathway to the single tax ideal A modern tax technology;the Brazilian experience with a bank transactions tax (1993-2007)," MPRA Paper 16710, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Richard M. Bird & Pierre-Pascal Gendron, 2001. "VATs in Federal States: Experiences and Emerging Possibilities," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0104, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    12. Bruce, Donald & Fox, William F., 2000. "E-Commerce in the Context of Declining State Sales Tax Bases," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(4), pages 1373-1390, December.
    13. Cristián Mardones Poblete, 2010. "Evaluando Reformas Tributarias en Chile con un Modelo CGE," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 37(2 Year 20), pages 243-284, December.
    14. Kosonen, Tuomas, 2015. "More and cheaper haircuts after VAT cut? On the efficiency and incidence of service sector consumption taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 87-100.
    15. Benjamin Russo, 2005. "An Efficiency Analysis of Proposed State and Local Sales Tax Reforms," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(2), pages 443-462, October.
    16. Tiantian Dai & Shenyi Jiang & Xiangbo Liu & Wen Wang, 2016. "The Impact of Internet Sales Tax in a Search Model of Money: Some Analytical Results," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 17(1), pages 133-144, May.
    17. Bo Sandemann Rasmussen, 2004. "On the Possibility and Desirability of Taxing E-Commerce," Economics Working Papers 2004-8, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    18. Horacio L. P. Piffano, 2007. "Argentina and Brazil: Fiscal Harmonization and Subnational Sales Taxation – State / Provincial VAT versus State / Provincial Retail Sales Tax," Department of Economics, Working Papers 069, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    19. Tsaur-Chin Wu & Chih-Ta Yen & Hsiu-Wei Chang, 2023. "Network externalities, trade costs, and the choice of commodity taxation principle," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(5), pages 1203-1224, October.
    20. Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2014. "A General Microsimulation Model for the EU VAT with a specific Application to Germany," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 7(2), pages 40-93.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Destination principle; international consumption taxation; electronic commerce; origin taxation; cross-border trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tiu:tiucen:46537bf7-4822-4dbe-b3fa-f64306f6fe45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Richard Broekman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://center.uvt.nl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.