TAX PROFILES OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

Computer science and technological developments of the last decades has impacted considerably on the forms and methods of production and circulation of wealth, encouraging the spread of new activities completely dematerialized within a social and economic context characterized by frenetic circulation of knowledge and information available than just a “click” and from a production, distribution and consumption of goods increasingly virtual and intangible. As activities that might acquire economic value, in terms of tax, we wondered if, in order to face emergencies raised by virtual economy, is sufficient to adapt existing fiscal instruments or is necessary, rather, developing new forms of levy, creating a virtual world taxation. Special emphasis hiring then tax profiles of the activities carried out by large multinational companies, digital society, with subsidiaries in several countries, that can produce very high incomes, hardly taxed in the source State or otherwise frequently taxed to a lesser extent than the ordinary tax regime. The Italian legal system has tried to remedy this widespread phenomenon, with timid actions which seek to establish, first, a Google tax, then a digital tax, before arriving to the web tax, recently adopted in two different subsequent versions(before “digital transactions tax” and after “digital services tax”), but characterized byan uncertain future.