Tariffs, Taxes and Electronic Commerce: Revenue Implications for Developing Countries
Imprint
Geneva, United Nations. 2000
Descript
v, 57 p. : graphs, tables
SUMMARY
Summary: Cross-border electronic commerce is currently operating in a tax- and tariff-free environment. This combined with predictions of steep increases of e-commerce during the next five years, has prompted Governments and tax authorities to discuss modifications to existing legislation that take account of these developments. One of their concerns is the potential loss in tax and tariff revenues resulting from e-commerce, which account for significant shares of government budgets in most countries. This is of particular concern to developing countries, where import duties comprise higher shares of government revenue and a shift to other revenue sources is economically less feasible. The paper presents data on potential revenue losses from import duties on a number of products that have been traded physically in the past but are increasingly being imported digitally. Findings show that developing countries will be the main losers as far as import duties from e-commerce products are concerned, while both developing and developed countries would suffer major revenue cuts from lost consumption taxes. [English only]
LOCATION
CALL#
STATUS
International Institute for Trade and Developement : UNCTAD Collection
