The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs invites public comments and input on questions related to the tax challenges of the digital economy. The Committee invites interested parties to send their comments in response to this request for input before 22 December 2013.

On 22 November 2013, a request for public comments on the tax challenges of the digital economy was launched. The OECD now publishes the comments received.

Public comments are invited on a discussion draft that includes the proposals produced with respect to Action 1 (Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy) of the BEPS Action Plan.

On 24 March 2014, the OECD invited comments from interested parties on the Discussion Draft on Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy related to Action 1 of the BEPS Action Plan. The OECD now publishes the comments received.

Tax revenues are currently rising as a proportion of national incomes in Indonesia and Malaysia but continue to be substantially lower than for Korea, Japan and other OECD countries, according to a new OECD report.

The Colombian economy has done remarkably well over the last decade, consistently ranking among the fastest-growing countries in Latin America, but a comprehensive tax reform that promotes investment and diversifies the economy is now needed to put the country on a path toward stronger, sustainable and inclusive growth, according to the latest OECD Economic Survey of Colombia.

This paper provides an update of the indicators that measure the tax autonomy of sub-central governments in OECD countries. Over the last decade, tax autonomy at the state level increased, while it hardly changed at the local level. The OECD now has tax autonomy indicators for the years 1995, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Increasing tax revenues and ensuring sustainable domestic resource mobilisation will be critical as emerging Asian economies seek to boost the provision of public goods and services and improve economic growth and living standards.

Healthcare costs are rising so fast in advanced economies that they will become unaffordable by mid-century without reforms, according to a new OECD report.

Tax revenues in African countries are rising as a proportion of national incomes, according to the inaugural edition of Revenue Statistics in Africa. In 2014, the eight countries covered by the report - Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia - reported tax revenues as a percentage of GDP ranging from 16.1% to 31.3%.

While the digital economy cannot be separated out from the rest of the economy, it is equally clear that some specific features of the digital economy may exacerbate the risks of base erosion and profit shifting for tax purposes–namely mobility (e.g. intangibles, business functions), reliance on data (and other forms of user input), network effects, and the spread of multi-sided business models.

In 2014, the tax-to-GDP ratios of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore were below 17% of GDP compared to Japan and Korea, which both recorded tax-to-GDP ratios above 24%,according to new data released in the third edition of the OECD’s annual publication Revenue Statistics in Asian Countries.

Malaysia has sustained over four decades of rapid, inclusive growth, reducing its dependence on agriculture and commodity exports to become a more diversified, modern and open economy.

Tax revenues in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries continued to increase in 2015, according to new data from the annual Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean publication. The average tax-to-GDP ratio for LAC countries reached 22.8% of GDP in 2015, up from 22.2% in 2014.

Tax administrations are playing a critical role as governments start implementing new international measures to counter offshore evasion and combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises.

The Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) is the leading international body concerned with tax administration. The FTA, which brings together Tax Commissioners from 50 advanced and emerging tax administrations (including OECD and G20 countries), held its Plenary meeting in Oslo on 27-29 September.

Africa has sustained gains in domestic resource mobilisation made since 2000, as tax revenues remained stable in 2016, according to Revenue Statistics in Africa 2018. Providing internationally comparable data for 21 participating countries, the report finds that the average tax-to-GDP ratio was 18.2% in 2016, the same level as in 2015, which represents a strong improvement from 13.1% in 2000.

This new report shows that tax-to-GDP ratios fell in most of the 16 Asian and Pacific economies covered by the report between 2015-16 due to a combination of policy reforms and decreasing natural resource prices.

The international community has agreed on a road map for resolving the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, and committed to continue working toward a consensus-based long-term solution by the end of 2020, the OECD announced today.

Progress continues on implementing the BEPS Action 5 minimum standard, with a further 22 jurisdictions changing their laws to address harmful tax practices. On 19 July 2019, the Inclusive Framework on BEPS approved the latest results of reviews of jurisdictions’ domestic laws conducted by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices.

Tax-to-GDP ratios increased in the majority of Asian and Pacific economies covered by a new OECD report published today. Nine of the economies in the publication increased their tax-to-GDP ratios between 2016 and 2017, compared with only three in the preceding year, according to Revenue Statistics in Asian and Pacific Economies 2019.

Today the OECD Secretariat published a proposal to advance international negotiations to ensure large and highly profitable Multinational Enterprises, including digital companies, pay tax wherever they have significant consumer-facing activities and generate their profits.

In response to a request from the APEC Finance Ministers, the OECD today presented the report Combatting Tax Crimes More Effectively in APEC Economies at the APEC meetings underway in Santiago, Chile.

As part of BEPS Action 5 to curb harmful tax practices, jurisdictions may only maintain preferential regimes if certain "substantial activities" requirements are met. In order to ensure a level playing field, these requirements must also apply to jurisdictions with zero or only nominal tax rates.

A regional meeting on tax and digitalisation for Asia and the Pacific , co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), took place in Manila, the Philippines on 19-20 November 2019.

The international community reaffirmed its commitment to reach a consensus-based long-term solution to the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, and will continue working toward an agreement by the end of 2020, according to the Statement by the Inclusive Framework on BEPS released by the OECD today.

As part of the Inclusive Framework’s work relating to the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, the OECD has been carrying out an economic analysis and impact assessment of the Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 proposals. Please join a live webcast with experts from the OECD to learn more about this work, which will include a presentation of preliminary results on the revenue and investment effects of the proposals.

As part of the ongoing work of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs, the OECD is seeking public comments on the draft Model Rules for Reporting for Platform Operators with respect to Sellers in the Sharing and Gig Economy.

In our modern world, companies are finding it all too easy to game the international tax system to their advantage . It is increasingly incumbent on the global community to create an updated framework to ensure tax certainty and support international trade and investment.

On 19 February 2020, interested parties were invited to provide comments on the draft Model Rules for Reporting for Platform Operators with respect to Sellers in the Sharing and Gig Economy. The OECD is grateful to the commentators for their input and now publishes the public comments received

Global value chains (GVCs) have become a dominant feature of world trade and investment, offering new prospects for growth, development and jobs, according to a new joint report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

South Africa must take urgent steps to proactively investigate and prosecute foreign bribery. No foreign bribery cases have been prosecuted since South Africa joined the Convention in 2007. The 4 on-going investigations – out of only 10 allegations that have surfaced to date – are also far from reaching the prosecution stage, according to a new report by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

“Why do financial institutions and investors see so little risk, while companies investing in the real economy see so much risk?” This is perhaps the most important question facing policy makers today. This paper sets out some of the possible hypotheses for lack of investment in the world economy. It uses data drawn from 10 000 global companies in 75 advanced and emerging countries.

Latin American economic growth is set to recover during the second half of 2015 and gain further speed in 2016, though with notable differences across countries.

17 October 2016, Paris: The G20 Chinese Presidency, the UK and the OECD jointly organised a Seminar on “Corruption and Economic Growth”. Expert panellists recognised the negative impact of corruption on economic growth and society at both the macro and micro level, and stressed the importance of strong political leadership in fighting corruption.

Integrating measures to tackle climate change into regular economic policy will have a positive impact on economic growth over the medium and long term, according to a new OECD report prepared in the context of the German Presidency of the G20.

Drawing on data presented in the 2017 OECD Business and Finance Outlook, this article looks at some of the forces influencing recent economic developments and asks what can be done to ensure a “fairer” global economy.

This paper examines the implications of digitalisation and digital technologies for international investment and investment policy, with a particular focus on digital policies relating to national security and digital policies directed at business operations.

Health spending continues to rise faster than economic growth in most OECD countries, maintaining a trend observed since the 1970s. Health spending reached 9.5% of GDP on average in 2009, the most recent year for which figures are available, up from 8.8% in 2008, according to OECD Health Data 2011.

This report presents the findings of a research project to investigate the drivers and criteria shaping the application of genomic biotechnology to health in different national settings, and the barriers to implementation nationally and internationally. Findings are based on case studies on Finland, Israel, Luxembourg, Mexico, the United Kingdom, China and South Africa.

This paper explores the development of the bioplastics sector and its role in national bioeconomy strategies. It finds that bioplastics are at a disadvantage compared to some other biobased products, notably biofuels, that often benefit from preferential treatment. It also notes that greater efforts are needed at the international level as regards standards to avoid creating barriers to international trade in biobased products.

Healthcare costs are rising so fast in advanced economies that they will become unaffordable by mid-century without reforms, according to a new OECD report.

Urgent research is needed to assess the possible risks to human health and ecosystems from the ever-increasing amounts of engineered nanomaterials going into household waste and ending up in the environment, according to a new OECD report.

This note is taken from Chapter 2 of Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2012.

This publication highlights new evidence on policies to support job creation, bringing together the latest research on labour market, entrepreneurship and local economic development policy to help governments support job creation in the recovery. It also includes a set of country pages featuring, among other things, new data on skills supply and demand at the level of smaller OECD regions (TL3).

The OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Australia, to be published at 00.01 am on Friday, 3 March 2017 AEDT (13.01, GMT; 14:01 Paris time Thursday), looks at Australia’s current macroeconomic situation, as well as the steps that can be taken to ensure stronger and more inclusive growth in the future. The Survey’s two in-depth chapters focus on innovation.

Economic growth has been resilient, exports and investment will support the economy and wage growth and price inflation will gradually pick up

This note is taken from Chapter 2 of Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth 2012.

Global economic activity is picking up, but the continuing crisis in the euro area is delaying a meaningful recovery, the OECD said in its latest Interim Economic Assessment.

A moderate recovery is underway in the major advanced economies, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Assessment. Growth is proceeding at encouraging rates in North America, Japan and the UK. The euro area as a whole is out of recession, although output remains weak in a number of countries.