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Overhauling Corporate Taxation in the Digital Economy
Report

Overhauling Corporate Taxation in the Digital Economy

CEPS, 2019

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Overview
  • For Experts

Recommendation

Introduced in the 1950s, the corporate income tax has since evolved, but a comprehensive update is long overdue. Because of globalization and technology, digital transactions and intellectual property now prevail over physical assets in most corporate financial statements. Tax specialists Loredana Carpentieri, Stefano Micossi and Paola Parascandolo examine the origins, efficacy and reform possibilities of the corporate income tax in this authoritative report for fiscal experts, economists and executives.

Summary

Governments continue to modify their corporate tax structures to motivate companies to set up or remain in their countries.

A corporate income tax (CIT) is a staple levy across the advanced and emerging economies. Politicians ushered in the CIT in the 1950s to add another revenue channel to sovereign coffers. But CIT rates around the globe have fallen by roughly 50% since their inception, because rates are a mechanism for encouraging companies to relocate to or remain in a nation.

Corporate executives have reduced their firms’ tax exposures amid globalization and digital transformation.

Since the 1980s, the composition of corporate holdings...

About the Authors

Loredana Carpentieri is a professor of tax law at the Parthenope University of Naples. Stefano Micossi is director general of Assonime, a corporate trade group, where Paola Parascandolo is the chief economist.