Moves and Countermoves in the Digitization Challenges to International Taxation

Abstract

The digital revolution has dramatically altered the international fiscal sphere. It first enabled those who sought to evade and avoid taxes to do so with unprecedented effectiveness. Over time, however, national administrators learned to limit tax escape with powerful digital responses of their own. These developments can be clearly seen in consumption, corporate, and personal taxation. The progression is largely one of new technologies of avoidance and evasion spurring counter-technologies of control that have often involved international cooperation. That cooperation, however, has been limited by two major considerations: sovereignty and privacy. These vital concerns show little sign of diminishing in popular attention and policy importance.