Problems And Countermeasures Of International Tax Jurisdiction Under The Background Of Digital Economy

Since the end of the 20th century,e-commerce as an early form of digital economy,this business model has attracted the attention of international organizations such as OECD and relevant scholars and government agencies at home and abroad in the early stage of development.With the improvement and development of information and communication technology,digital economy has also derived a variety of business models.So far,the development of digital economy has penetrated into all aspects of the economic field.The application of digital technology not only improves the quality of life of people all over the world,but also promotes the prosperity of a country’s economy and the integration of world trade.However,while we pay attention to the benefits of digital economy to the global economy,we should also be aware of the negative effects of digital economy.The digital economy makes the current international tax rules face difficulties,especially the impact on the principle of jurisdictional division of international tax revenue,which makes the tax losses of developing countries in the status of importing countries of digital economy serious and the international development more unbalanced.The liquidity,invisibility and concealment of the new business model of digital economy make it difficult to determine the identity of a country’s residents,to apply the standard of permanent establishment,to classify all kinds of income and to apply the principle of independent transaction,etc.In practice,multinational digital conglomerates can easily carry out trade activities globally based on information and communication technology,use enterprise value chain management to make unreasonable tax planning,and then achieve the purpose of reducing their own tax burden,such as Google’s tax avoidance strategy of "double-deck Ireland and Dutch sandwich"developed by taking advantage of tax differences between different countries.A large amount of tax revenue was saved in the year.However,the current international tax planning for the digital economy is mostly based on the loopholes in the existing tax rules,which does not violate the existing international tax rules,but actually causes a substantial loss of tax interests in the source countries of profits.Aiming at the problem of international tax jurisdiction under the background of digital economy,relevant international organizations and scholars from all walks of life have discussed it and put forward a series of solutions.However,through the final report of the BEPS(Tax Base Erosion and Profit Transfer)Action Plan issued by OECD in 2015,we can see that there is no specific conclusive plan on international tax jurisdiction under the background of digital economy.In the final report,OECD proposes four solutions:amending the exception clause of permanent establishment,determining the economic relevance of profits to specific areas based on "significant economic presence",introducing equity tax and levying advance tax on digital transactions.Ultimately,the OECD recommends that countries adopt the first option,namely,to continue to follow the existing principles of permanent institutions and to revise them continuously.At present,in order to safeguard their tax interests,some countries have taken unilateral actions based on the scheme mentioned in the final report issued by OECD.The concrete implementation results need to be followed up.In recent years,China’s economy has developed by leaps and bounds,becoming the second largest economy in the world.As the largest developing country,China’s position in digital economy and trade has changed,and now it has dual roles of realizing and originating data value.On this occasion,China should take the implementation of the results of the BEPS action plan as an opportunity,give advice and suggestions for the formulation of more fair and just international tax jurisdiction rules,and voice for the developing countries on the basis of fully considering our national conditions.The establishment of international tax jurisdiction rules is a long-term process.Therefore,this paper argues that China should improve the judgment mechanism of permanent institutions in tax agreements at the present stage,rationally draw lessons from the results of BEPS action plan,and reduce tax losses in China.Secondly,we should strengthen international exchanges and cooperation,improve our ability to deal with International Anti-tax avoidance and other international affairs,and then through our tax talents.Team building actively promotes the revision of relevant laws and the work of collection and management.Finally,we use digital technology to improve the tax system,actively deal with the tax jurisdiction problems brought by the digital economy,and effectively protect our tax interests.