tax sovereignty in a globalized and digitalized world · system” • how will increased...
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Tax Sovereignty in a Globalized and Digitalized World
ÅSA HANSSON
The current tax system is under pressure!
Globalized world ‐‐‐‐ National tax systems
New technologies & business models ‐‐‐‐ Old tax systems
Many requests on the tax system Finance our welfareSave the climateDecrease inequality
How do we design a sustainable tax system in this environment?
Require the tax system to …
• generate revenues• be efficient – immobile tax bases– local specific rents
• be “fair”– benefit principle– value creation
• be simple and transparent
Not an easy task!
Paradigm shift?
• Tax principle today: Tax net profit where value is created (production chain)
• Have moved from double taxation to double non‐taxation and now back to double taxation
• Globalization = > mobility of tax bases increases => a move towards less mobile tax bases => a move from direct to indirect taxation
Paradigm shift?
• Destination Based Cash Flow Tax (DBCFT)
• Partial allocation of taxing rights (split profits) – how? – Based on efficiency and/or “fairness”
• Only tax corporate income at owner level
Digital Tax Two aims• Allocate taxing rights between jurisdictions (fair and efficient) • Benefit principle?• Value creation?
– Consumer base– Economic presence– User base– Investment base
• Reduce tax avoidance and harmful tax competition• Consumer based (turnover)
What are the consequences of these changes?
SOME RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Coordinate tax policies or compete?
• Today both increased tax competition and increased coordination
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10
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Corporate tax rates
Sweden EU OECD UK US Germany Denmark
Coordinate tax policies or compete?
• What are the gains of coordination?– Gains unevenly spread• Small countries tend to lose from coordination
– Gains from regional coordination are limited– Give up fiscal policies – Competition move to something else – Good intentions can lead to unintended effects – Competition is good, or?
Coordinate tax policies or compete?
• According to the principle of subsidiarity, taxes should be legislated on the lowest level which is effective and sometimes this level is international…
• but what if this is does not gain legitimacy everywhere?
Optimal vs uniform taxation?• Traditionally, we suggest
uniform rates except in areas with large externalities
• Move towards optimal taxation? Tax mobile tax bases with lower rates –patent boxes?
• Revenues from corporate income modest, lions part come from labor income taxation 0
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1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
S&P 500
Share material assets Share immaterial assets
Distributional effects of a “new tax system”
• Tax incidence discussion basically absent– Who is really carrying the tax burden of mobile tax bases?
• What is a “fair” tax system?– Benefit principle (digital companies use less public infrastructure)
– Value creation? (consumer based, user based, investment) A new tax system will have large distributional effects – Cross countries– Cross industries (R&D intensive) – Cross income and wealth distributions – Sweden, a net exporting country with a large R&D sector, will likely lose
Distributional effects of a “new tax system”
• How will increased coordination affect tax competition? What will UK do?
• How will the digital tax affect tax competition?– Competition is hard to tame – “losers” likely to react
• How will the digital tax affect firm localization? • How will it affect R&D and innovations?• Increase administration and compliancy cost, cost of capital?
• Who will pay? Sweden likely to lose – raise some other tax?
Conclusions
• Lots of questions need answers• The principle of subsidiarity should be kept – Coordination should focus on the ability to conduct independent tax policies rather than harmonizing
• Tax reform in Sweden needs to focus on more than going back to 90/91 tax reform –What should the tax system do?