Tax Theory Applied to the Digital Economy: A Proposal for a Digital Data Tax and a Global Internet Tax Agency by Cristian Óliver Lucas-Mas and Raúl Félix Junquera-Varela published by World Bank Group (2021).
“This book is about the scope of state sovereignty, which entails two exclusive faculties that are reserved for governments only: the power to tax and the power to punish. These powers go together, and each needs the other. Governments levy taxes under the threat of punishment, and the necessary institutional means to punish are funded through taxes. The power to tax encompasses the power of states to obtain resources for public purposes from their citizenry and their territory, which is the basis for residence taxation and source taxation, respectively. However, this power needs to be balanced to ensure fiscal sustainability. Unfortunately, high-income economies are facing an unprecedented fiscal deficit, which the post-COVID-19 crisis will exacerbate. In this context, some countries are coming close to exhausting their fiscal space, especially as to raising residence-based taxes, which are unpopular and have a high political cost…”
