Week 6: Consumption Taxation, Sales Taxes, and Fundamental Tax Reform, including the Carbon Tax

Tax our tech and we’ll blacklist your bubbly

It is accepted throughout the world that the treaty-based global corporate tax system needs updating. Yet how to do it has not yet been determined. France has recently implemented a 3% digital sales tax, as a way by which some tax revenue can be captured (as tax shelters and intangible trade pose a difficult taxation challenge). President Trump responded with a threat of a 100% tariff on French luxury goods like cheese and champagne. This relates to our class discussions surrounding tax shelters and the inability to simply close them. Alternative taxing methods such as this must be used. Yet, also as discussed in class, questions of inequity arise when transitioning to a consumption tax (such as this digital-sales tax).