BEPS and Global Digital Taxation

In 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched its base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project to inhibit aggressive international tax planning. Action 1 of the BEPS project requires the OECD to identify the main challenges that the digital economy poses for the application of current international tax rules and develop reforms to address these challenges. The article reviews related academic perspectives, and discusses how the digital world facilitates aggressive tax planning. It concludes that any new tax rules should apply broadly and neutrally to substantively similar economic activities from either the digital or traditional commercial world. In addition, the OECD should more carefully examine how Internet technologies can help enforce national tax laws to constrain aggressive planning