C. STEPPING STONES TO A DIGITAL ECONOMY TAXATION BILL
1. The work program: explore and examine
All these proposals made by Internet professionals must be explored and examined, in addition to the work programme for a Digital Taxation Bill which was filed by Mr. Philippe Marini, chair of the Senate Finance Committee last July 19. This involves:
- Technical hearings with professionals and the government are in progress (last July 2, the French government has introduced a technical mission upon the digital economy taxation);
- Questions put to the European Commission's departments on the admissibility of certain proposals under Community Law (DG taxation, DG competition);
- Mr. Philippe Marini has also been attending several events organized by the professionals of the sector on the digital taxation theme. He made a statement, adopted by the Senate's finance committee (june 27, 2012), on a road map for a neutral and fair digital taxation, then proposed a bill (July 19, 2012).
2. The outline of a Bill for a neutral and fair taxation of digital economy
The mechanism outlined for the proposed Bill is part of a global scheme which includes three levels: national, European and international .
At the national level , the Bill for a neutral and fair taxation of digital economy includes two sections:
- Firstly a procedural section with an obligation for players based abroad to declare a tax from certain thresholds of business activity which would target large groups (the «over the tops» but also companies established in France) based on the procedural model for approving online betting sites, but respecting the principles of non-discrimination and proportionality ;
- Secondly a taxation section with two series of taxation, one intended to re-establish taxation fairness by taxing foreign players the taxes for supporting public audiovisual and the private copy royalty paid to the beneficiaries, and the second concerning on line taxation, regarding to net neutrality, for advertising and e-commerce services.
Finally, in a longer-term perspective, two other proposals deserve specific support and the search for synergies at the European level with MP's from member states which are experiencing the same problems of distortion of competition at the European level (Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Spain etc).
At the European level : renegotiate the schedule for implementing the VAT directive on electronic services in order to bring its application deadline nearer,
At the international level : convince and make the MP's in the member states aware about initiating a process to renegotiate the OECD rules for taxing profits by taking the specificity of the digital economy and the dematerialization of flows of wealth into account. This issue deserves to be filed on the OECD schedule.