The course focuses on the impact of the digital economy on tax law. It will describe the essential features of the digital economy and the issues with respect to taxation, with reference to tax avoidance techniques of multinational digital companies; the emergence of dematerialised goods and techniques (from user data to cryptocurrencies to blockchain); the tax impact of robotization and artificial intelligence.
ATTENDING STUDENTS:
1. R. Cordeiro Guerra, S. Dorigo, Fiscalità dell'economia digitale, Pacini Giuridica, Pisa, 2022, to be published soon (only some chapters);
2. Lecture notes and documentation distributed in class.
NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:
1. R. Cordeiro Guerra, S. Dorigo, Fiscalità dell'economia digitale, Pacini Giuridica, Pisa, 2022, to be published soon.
Learning Objectives
Knowledge: The course aims at providing the tools for a critical understanding of the digital economy phenomena and their impact on the tax function and on the realisation of equality and solidarity, both from a domestic and a supranational point of view; as well as to understand the functioning of the main regulatory tools already in force or in the process of being introduced to counter abuse and evasion phenomena made possible by the dematerialisation of the digital economy.
Capacities: Ability to identify and set up interpretative and applicative problems inherent to tax provisions, both domestic and international. Ability to acquire and select normative, jurisprudential and doctrinal material. Ability to frame the technical-tax issues in a broader context, concerning the main economic and social phenomena induced by globalisation.
Competences: Notions and methods necessary to understand the evolutionary lines of society and economy in the era of digitalisation and to identify the causes of the inadequacy of the current tax regulations with respect to these developments. Acquisition of the ability to understand the problematic aspects of the subject and to assess the effectiveness of the expected developments, also through the discussion of case law and issues related to the approach of the various national tax systems and of the European and international institutions to the problem of bringing the digital economy back to the canons of fair and equitable taxation.
Prerequisites
It is advisable to have already passed Tax Law and International Tax Law.
Teaching Methods
Lectures and seminars, in which the examination of principles and norms will be alternated with the analysis of application profiles with reference to guidelines of practice and domestic and international case law.
In addition, groups will be set up for in-depth study and discussion among students, for the critical evaluation of specific topical issues.
Finally, seminars and conferences will be held with scholars and representatives of the professions, digital economy companies and the financial administration.
Further information
Students wishing to attend the course must register via the Moodle platform by the first week of classes. Attendance of students enrolled in the course will be recorded by means of a random roll call.
Students enrolled in the course must inform the teacher before the beginning of each lesson if they will be absent, by writing an e-mail with the subject: "excuse".
A maximum of 3 unexcused absences will be allowed.
Type of Assessment
Oral examination. It will consist of three questions. In addition to the ability to answer the question, the assessment will also include the ability to make connections between different fields as well as legal language skills. For those attending, the results of participation in group work promoted during the course will be taken into account.
Course program
The course on Taxation of the Digital Economy is structured as follows:
1) the features of the digital economy, its issues and the emergence of the global role of digital platforms
2) the crisis of the tax duty in the light of the conduct of digital multinationals; the overcoming of traditional tax rules; international and European initiatives and the repercussions on domestic systems
3) The direct taxation of income from digital activities. In particular:
-residence and digital permanent establishment;
-the tax relevance of data and the protection of user rights;
anti-abuse rules;
-Cooperation between tax administrations;
-Taxation of smart contracts
4) VAT profiles of the digital economy
5) Cryptocurrencies and blockchain: tax aspects
6) The robotization of production activity and the role of taxation
7) the importance of artificial intelligence for taxpayers, tax administration and judges.