BOOK CHAPTER (259-300)
Digital reality and tax rules: from the bit tax
to the web tax
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Researcher in “Tax Law”
University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy |
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Computer science and technological developments of the last decades has impacted
considerably on the forms and methods of production and circulation of wealth,
encouraging the spread of new activities completely dematerialized within a social and
economic context characterized by frenetic circulation of knowledge and information
available than just a “click” and from a production, distribution and consumption of goods
increasingly virtual and intangible. As activities that might acquire economic value, in
terms of tax, we wondered if, in order to face emergencies raised by virtual economy, is
sufficient to adapt existing fiscal instruments or is necessary, rather, developing new forms
of levy, creating a virtual world taxation. The question arose, first, for e-commerce, both
in direct as in indirect form. Not minor insights presents the theme on the taxation of the
network itself, because internet is a place of social interaction and legal environment in
which arise and develop new forms of wealth. Special emphasis hiring then tax profiles of
the activities carried out by large multinational companies, digital society, with subsidiaries
in several countries, that can produce very high incomes, hardly taxed in the source State
or otherwise frequently taxed to a lesser extent than the ordinary tax regime. The Italian
legal system has tried to remedy this widespread phenomenon, with timid actions which
seek to establish, first, a Google tax, then a digital tax, before arriving to the web tax,
recently adopted, but from an uncertain future.