VAT/GST in a global digital economy

Michael Lang, Ine Lejeune

"Indirect taxation is increasing in prominence worldwide. In times of international company tax competition, such forms of indirect taxation as value added tax (VAT) and goods and services taxes (GST) are particularly advantageous as sources of tax revenue on account of their broad base and non-distortion of competition in the chain of companies. In addition, the far-reaching changes in tax regimes wrought by these shifts are happening in direct parallel with the equally transformative digitalization of the economy, creating unprecedented difficulties for tax authorities worldwide and also for lawyers who must combine knowledge of the intricacies of indirect taxation with ever-changing digital ways of conducting business. In frame of a research project conducted and built on the presentations by renowned experts at a conference organized by the Institute for Austrian and International...