International Taxation of Cloud Computing

International Taxation of Cloud Computing PDF Author: Alexander Weisser
Publisher: Éditions juridiques libres / Freier juristischer Verlag
ISBN: 2889540316
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
Cloud computing may be borderless, but taxes are territorial. It is easy to imagine how the two concepts can clash. Much effort has gone into harmonizing tax rules across borders with the result that many jurisdictions have very similar tax rules. Even so, taxation remains a basic expression of national sovereignty. The goal of this thesis is to examine how international tax law applies to the cross-border cloud computing business. Both, multinational providers and customers of cloud computing services are analyzed. Reflecting three traditional areas of international tax scholarship, the goal could be stated in three questions. Which jurisdictions have the right to tax? What kinds of cloud computing transactions can be taxed? What amount of the profit is taxable? In more technical terms, this means enquiring into how the use of cloud computing affects the permanent establishment status of taxpayers, how the different kinds of cloud computing transactions are characterized under international double taxation treaties, and how the calculation of taxable cloud computing profit is affected by transfer pricing. In light of the current political events, the thesis also offers recommendations de lege lata through a systematic approach. Its first part assesses the current taxation of cloud computing. The second part evaluates whether the findings of this initial assessment conform to various superior principles of good rulemaking. It identifies which of the present tax rules ought to be adapted. The final part considers how the rules could be amended to become more compliant with the superior principles. In this way, Part I embodies the thesis, Part II the antithesis, and Part III seeks a synthesis.

International Taxation of Cloud Computing

International Taxation of Cloud Computing PDF Author: Alexander Weisser
Publisher: Éditions juridiques libres / Freier juristischer Verlag
ISBN: 2889540316
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 594

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cloud computing may be borderless, but taxes are territorial. It is easy to imagine how the two concepts can clash. Much effort has gone into harmonizing tax rules across borders with the result that many jurisdictions have very similar tax rules. Even so, taxation remains a basic expression of national sovereignty. The goal of this thesis is to examine how international tax law applies to the cross-border cloud computing business. Both, multinational providers and customers of cloud computing services are analyzed. Reflecting three traditional areas of international tax scholarship, the goal could be stated in three questions. Which jurisdictions have the right to tax? What kinds of cloud computing transactions can be taxed? What amount of the profit is taxable? In more technical terms, this means enquiring into how the use of cloud computing affects the permanent establishment status of taxpayers, how the different kinds of cloud computing transactions are characterized under international double taxation treaties, and how the calculation of taxable cloud computing profit is affected by transfer pricing. In light of the current political events, the thesis also offers recommendations de lege lata through a systematic approach. Its first part assesses the current taxation of cloud computing. The second part evaluates whether the findings of this initial assessment conform to various superior principles of good rulemaking. It identifies which of the present tax rules ought to be adapted. The final part considers how the rules could be amended to become more compliant with the superior principles. In this way, Part I embodies the thesis, Part II the antithesis, and Part III seeks a synthesis.

International Taxation of Cloud Computing

International Taxation of Cloud Computing PDF Author: Alexander Weisser
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782889540303
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Cloud computing may be borderless, but taxes are territorial. It is easy to imagine how the two concepts can clash. Much effort has gone into harmonizing tax rules across borders with the result that many jurisdictions have very similar tax rules. Even so, taxation remains a basic expression of national sovereignty. The goal of this thesis is to examine how international tax law applies to the cross-border cloud computing business. Both, multinational providers and customers of cloud computing services are analyzed. Reflecting three traditional areas of international tax scholarship, the goal could be stated in three questions. Which jurisdictions have the right to tax? What kinds of cloud computing transactions can be taxed? What amount of the profitt is taxable? In more technical terms, this means enquiring into how the use of cloud computing affects the permanent establishment status of taxpayers, how the different kinds of cloud computing transactions are characterized under international double taxation treaties, and how the calculation of taxable cloud computing profit is affected by transfer pricing. In light of the current political events, the thesis also offers recommendations de lege lata through a systematic approach. Its first part assesses the current taxation of cloud computing. The second part evaluates whether the findings of this initial assessment conform to various superior principles of good rulemaking. It identifies which of the present tax rules ought to be adapted. The final part considers how the rules could be amended to become more compliant with the superior principles. In this way, Part I embodies the thesis, Part II the antithesis, and Part III seeks a synthesis.

International Tax Implications of Cloud Computing

International Tax Implications of Cloud Computing PDF Author: Vasiliki Koukoulioti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The current tax laws are based heavily on concepts of physical geography, such as controlling premises and physical equipment or employing staff in the jurisdiction. The geographical concepts do not accommodate the cloud business model in any sensible way. As a consequence, the taxation of cloud providers is particularly complex and uncertain, as this paper will show, by examining the direct and inidirect tax treatment of cloud computing services. The law is clearly in urgent need of reform, and this is accepted by most states even if they do not agree how reform should be achieved. Residence-based taxation of digital enterprises is becoming increasingly difficult and artificial. Also, traditional source rules, particularly the permanent establishment rule, are based on the assumption that cross-border activities require a physical presence in the market jurisdiction; in the digital economy this is no longer true. The suggested policy solutions attempt to take account of online service users' contribution and hence allocate taxing rights to the jurisdictions where they are located (market jurisdictions). More fundamentally, every change to the rules of international tax law tends to increase the tax revenues of some states whilst correspondingly decreasing the tax revenues of others. In this context, cloud computing transactions will be inevitably impacted by the new international tax landscape.

The Taxation of Cloud Computing and Digital Content

The Taxation of Cloud Computing and Digital Content PDF Author: David J. Shakow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
“Cloud computing” raises important and difficult questions in state tax law, and for Federal taxes, particularly in the foreign tax area. As cloud computing solutions are adopted by businesses, items we view as tangible are transformed into digital products. In this article, I will describe the problems cloud computing poses for tax systems. I will show how current law is applied to cloud computing and will identify the difficulties current approaches face as they are applied to this developing technology. My primary interest is how Federal tax law applies to cloud computing, particularly as the new technology affects international transactions. I am not so interested in the current state of the law as I am in identifying the problems confronting tax administrators as technology creates a changed economic system. After identifying the problems, I will suggest that cloud computing (like other technological changes) is not always compatible with current rules for taxing activities in multiple jurisdictions. Therefore, tax fairness may require that new standards be used to allocate income among jurisdictions. But beyond that, I hope to explain some of the particulars of the cloud structure. In doing so, it will become apparent that the significance of cloud computing goes beyond the local and international tax areas that have been identified as problem areas in the past.

Taxing the Cloud

Taxing the Cloud PDF Author: Orly Mazur
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Transacting business in the “cloud” has quickly gained popularity worldwide as the new method of providing information technology resources. Instead of purchasing or downloading software, we can now use the Internet to access software and other fundamental computing resources located on remote computer networks operated by third parties. These transactions offer companies lower operating costs, increased scalability and improved reliability, but also give rise to a host of international tax issues. Despite the rapid growth and prevalent use of cloud computing, U.S. taxation of international cloud computing transactions has yet to receive significant scholarly attention. This Article seeks to fill that void by analyzing the U.S. tax implications of operating in the cloud from a doctrinal and policy perspective. Such an analysis shows that the technological advances associated with the cloud put pressure on traditional U.S. federal income tax principles, which creates uncertainty, compliance burdens and liability risks for companies and a potential loss of revenue for the government. Applying the current law to cloud computing transactions also results in tax consequences that run counter to sound tax policy and may result in double taxation or complete non-taxation of cloud income. In light of these problems, federal attention is warranted to clarify how U.S. federal income tax principles apply to businesses operating in the cloud. Thus, this Article proposes that Treasury issue guidance that clearly addresses the U.S. tax implications of international cloud computing services and suggests that, ultimately, the United States must collaborate with other countries to achieve international consensus on these issues. Together these changes will ensure that the United States appropriately taxes the cloud and does so in a manner that minimizes double taxation and promotes efficiency, equity and administrative simplicity.

Taxing Global Digital Commerce

Taxing Global Digital Commerce PDF Author: Arthur Cockfield
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041167110
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
Digital commerce – the use of computer networks to facilitate transactions involving the production, distribution, sale, and delivery of goods and services – has grown from merely streamlining relations between consumer and business to a much more robust phenomenon embracing efficient business processes within a firm and between firms. Inevitably, the related taxation issues have grown as well. This latest edition of the preeminent text on the taxation of digital transactions revises, updates and expands the book’s coverage. It includes a detailed and up-to-date analysis of income tax and VAT developments regarding digital commerce under the OECD and G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) reforms. It explores the implications of digital commerce for US state sales and use tax regimes resulting from the 2018 US Supreme Court decision in Wayfair. It discusses cross-border tax in the United States while continuing to focus on tax developments throughout the world. Analysing the practical tax consequences of digital commerce from a multijurisdictional perspective, and using examples to illustrate the application of different taxes to digital commerce transactions, the book offers in-depth treatment of such topics as the following: how tax rules governing cross-border digital commerce are increasingly applied to all cross-border activities; how tax rules and institutional processes have evolved to confront challenges posed by digital commerce; how an emerging ‘tax war’ is developing whereby different countries are unilaterally imposing new tax rules on cross-border digital commerce; how technology enhances tax and cross-border tax information exchanges; how technology reduces both compliance and enforcement costs; cross-border consumption tax issues raised by cloud computing; and different approaches to the legal design of VAT place of taxation rules. The authors offer insightful views on the likely development of new approaches to taxing cross-border digital commerce. This edition, while building on the analysis of the relationship between traditional tax laws and the Internet in the first edition and its predecessors, contains a more explicit and systematic consideration of digital commerce issues and the ongoing policy responses to them. Tax professionals and academics everywhere will welcome the important contribution it makes towards the design of cross-border tax rules that are both conceptually sound and practical in application. ‘A tour de force … much larger and richer than its predecessors … a massive contribution to the growing literature on the taxation of e-commerce.’ – Rita de la Feria, British Tax Review ‘Provides important understandings for ongoing policy discussions … I would warmly recommend.’ – P. Rendahl, World Journal of VAT/GST Law

Transfer Pricing the Cloud

Transfer Pricing the Cloud PDF Author: Sterling Jones
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Informational Technology (IT) services today form a core component of most multinational enterprises in their mission to deliver goods and services and realize a profit. Cloud computing is the newest mechanism to deliver IT goods and services. Given this new global market place, international taxation systems have not grown as fast the economy. These conditions create opportunities for Multinational Enterprises (MNE) to structure their operations, particularly IT and cloud computing, in a way to minimize their tax burdens through location in low or no tax jurisdictions. This results in a diminution in tax revenue, or base erosion, and is the consequence of intangibles being shifted to no or low tax jurisdictions with the corresponding income they generate, being attributed to those jurisdictions and taxed accordingly under existing frameworks. As a result, there exist gaps within this international framework that lead to low or no taxation and stranded cash offshore. The OECD coined the term Base Erosion Profit Shifting, or BEPS, to describe this issue. Cloud computing is the most recent iteration of base erosion and profit-shifting that is facing multinational enterprises and taxing sovereigns. BEPS is the taxation practice of shifting income to alternate low or no tax jurisdictions. MNEs accomplish this by shifting intangible items that generate income, such as royalties, rentals, and leases, to entities in jurisdictions that levy low or no tax. The resulting diminution in the home country's tax revenue base generated enough concern amongst the G-20 that they petitioned the OECD to address BEPS and prepare an Action Plan. The resulting action plan addresses BEPS in a broad fashion, however, for purposes of this paper, it will focus on BEPS as it pertains to Cloud Computing to highlight some of the major issues facing MNEs, law firms, accountants, and taxing sovereigns.

International Taxation of Income from Services under Double Taxation Conventions

International Taxation of Income from Services under Double Taxation Conventions PDF Author: Marta Castelon
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9041195955
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
The provision of international services has increased enormously, mainly due to the precipitous growth of the digital economy. Accordingly, the interpretation and application of double taxation conventions (DTCs) to income from services has become a dominant focus in the international taxation. This multiple-award-winning book is an indispensable tool for practitioners and a major contribution to the debate about tax reform. It responds to the need for a comprehensive overview of the tax opportunities and risks relating to the provision of international services. It also offers the rst in-depth analysis of the taxation of income from services vis-à-vis the multilateral instrument (MLI) resulting from the OECD’s Base Erosion and Pro t Shifting (BEPS) initiative. With the thorough analysis of the international taxation of income from services over the last two centuries, the author sheds new light on present tax policy debates and develops workable proposals for bringing brick-and-mortar DTCs into the digital reality. With an abundance of case studies, treaty interpretations, appraisals of policy discussions, and practical solutions, the author examines every aspect of the subject, including the following: – the Model DTCs of the OECD, the United Nations, Germany, and the United States, their similarities and differences; – relationships among the MLI, the Model DTCs, and speci c DTCs; – development of the provisions dealing with services in the DTCs; – how tax authorities and courts of different countries (e.g., the United States, Germany, Brazil, India, and China) apply DTC provisions on the taxation of international services; – opportunities and risks relating to different business practices, such as the subcontracting of services provisions, the hiring-out of labour, the secondment of employees, and the engagement of contract and toll manufacturers; – practical questions about the taxation of different distribution models – from fully edged distributors to commissionaires; – challenges and proposals relating to the differentiation between various types of services under DTCs; – the permanent establishment concept; – to what extent the structure, purposes, and scope of DTCs differ from those of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); – how changes in the US Model DTC of 2016 affect international service provisions; and – proposed changes to amending the OECD and UN Model DTCs. Viable proposals to simplify DTC provisions dealing with service income and align them with current challenges such as the digital economy and the increasing volume of remote services are offered, particularly in light of the likely impact of the ‘BEPS package’ and its subsequent MLI. This book is poised to become one of the key practice resources for tax lawyers, in-house counsel, and policymakers in the coming years. Interested academics too will bene t from the author’s skill in recognizing the ongoing role of taxation fundamentals in the major revolution currently underway.

Taxation in a Global Digital Economy

Taxation in a Global Digital Economy PDF Author: Ina Kerschner
Publisher: Linde Verlag GmbH
ISBN: 3709409055
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
Time to discuss anti-BEPS measures around digitalization In the course of the BEPS Report on Action 1, it was concluded that there was no instantaneous need for specific rules to address base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) made possible by the digitalization of enterprises and new digital businesses. At the same time, it was acknowledged that general measures may not suffice with the assessment of results to begin in 2020. While awaiting possible fundamental reforms of the tax framework, it is time to discuss anti-BEPS measures bearing in mind the peculiar features of the digital economy such as increased mobility, no need for physical presence, and dematerialization. The Book focuses on five key areas of interest:International Tax PolicyTax Treaty LawTransfer PricingIndirect Taxation IssuesEU Law “Taxation in a Global Digital Economy” analyses the issues and addresses the five key areas of interest from various viewpoints.

Tax and Technology

Tax and Technology PDF Author: Annika Streicher
Publisher: Linde Verlag GmbH
ISBN: 3709413001
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
The challenges and opportunities of new technologies in the tax field Technological developments induced major reforms in the regulatory international and domestic tax landscapes as well as in the developments in the use of technology by tax administrations and taxpayers. New technology, especially the innovations in virtual asset-light cross-border business organizations, data analytics, service and process automation, on one hand, disrupted the well-established legal tax principles and rules and, on the other, stimulated informed data-driven and structured solutions in tax compliance. Technological advances affected nearly every area and each aspect of taxation: Direct tax regulations, indirect tax law, and tax procedures including tax compliance, and tax control functions. International organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), and the European Commission as a supranational organization fostered critical legislative reforms and proposals among which are the OECD Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation of the Economy, Article 12B of the UN Model Tax Convention to tax automated digital services, new rules for tracing transfers of crypto-assets in the EU, as well as the EU ́s VAT e-commerce package and "VAT in the Digital Age" package. While these proposals aim to address a wide range of the benefits and challenges of Economy 4.0, certain questions arise concerning the consistency of the legislative developments with their initial objectives, the appropriateness of the legal form for the economic substance of the regulated relations for the effectiveness of the regulations as well as their coherence. This volume contains a collection of scientific chapters on the general topic "Tax and Technology" that were successfully completed by the 2022/2023 LL.M. graduates of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, WU. The volume is divided into three parts that contain the contributions dealing with the impact of the technology on international tax law, indirect tax law, and procedural law. Each chapter provides an in-depth analysis of a unique research question aiming to innovatively contribute to the current debate and develop a practical approach for implementing the findings.