L'imposta italiana sui servizi digitali

Addressing tax challenges raised by the digitalization of the economy is a priority both for the OECD, the EU and many countries, like Italy. The basic international tax policy problem is still the one raised in 1923: the amount of taxes on cross-border income and what countries have a better right to tax. However, one hundred years ago the main source of wealth was the land; while now digital data and information are. Because of the absence of a physical presence, corporations are generally not subject to income tax in the country where users are, based on current rules. For this reason, Italy, as other countries, adopted a digital service tax, which is not an income tax but a temporary indirect tax on the use of personal data of the users. This tax raises many (domestic, EU and international) issues, but it closes a gap (the lack of taxing rights in the country where users are located) and solves redistributional concerns (multinationals involved in digital economy not paying a fair amount of taxes). Moreover, this tax is putting pressure on the international community to find a common solution. And if the result of the digital services tax, adopted by Italy and by other countries, is that the international community will find a good common solution, this is a positive result.