UN won’t wait for OECD action to tackle digital economy taxation

by Julie Martin

The UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters will not wait for the OECD to reach final conclusions on the taxation of the digital economy before moving ahead with its work in the area.

The issue of coordination between the UN work and OECD work on taxation of the digital economy came up during the sixteenth session of the UN committee, held May 14-17 at UN headquarters in New York.

The OECD has announced that it seeks to reach consensus among countries on how to appropriately tax the digital economy by 2020, raising the question of whether the UN should delay its work on these issues until the OECD work is complete.

The UN committee decided at its meeting, though, that there is no need to wait. The committee’s work on the taxation of the digital economy differs because it focuses on issues of interest to developing countries, the committee concluded, according to informal committee notes.

The committee also said that work already done by the OECD on the taxation of the digital economy could be useful to the UN subcommittee charged with developing the UN committee work. For example, the description of new business models included in the OECD’s March 16 interim report could illustrate allocation of taxing rights issues, a subject of interest to developing countries, the committee said.

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Julie Martin

Founder & Editor at MNE Tax

Julie Martin is the founder of MNE Tax. She edits the publication and regularly contributes articles on new developments in cross-border business taxation.

Julie has worked as a tax journalist and editor for more than 13 years. Prior to that, she worked as an in-house tax attorney in New York. She also holds an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law.

Julie can be reached at [email protected].

@mnetax

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Julie can be reached at [email protected].