Thesis (M. Comm,)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, 2001. / Electronic commerce is a new technology, which is growing rapidly and has the ability to create a truly global digital economy. The extraordinary growth of the internet in the last few years has led to the birth of a world without borders, a place where free communication, a competitive market and extensive comparison shopping are a matter of course. This apparent lack of geography in cyberspace has raised complex problems regarding government tax policy. The rapid rise in sales over the internet and the fact that most internet buyers pay no income tax on transactions has ignited a considerable debate over taxes and the internet. The nature of the internet and the globalisation of the world economy mean that developments in e-commerce create legal problems concerning security of transactions and legal jurisdiction of transactions. There is a general concern that e-commerce provides taxpayers with the ability to move transactions outside a country's jurisdiction and thus avoid paying tax in that taxing jurisdiction. The advent of ecommerce has also given dishonest taxpayers the ability to structure their affairs to reduce or avoid paying tax in their jurisdictions. Rules written specifically to address the unique characteristics of electronic commerce are few and must be creatively adapted to the unique needs of e-commerce. As the volume of e-commerce increases, however, so will the number of rules. Many government committees and commissions devoted wholly or partly to make proposals and write the rules for e-commerce, exist throughout the world. In the United States the highest profile commission is the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. This commission has a mandate to recommend far-reaching changes to the taxation of electronic commerce, especially in the areas of sales and value-added tax ('Vat') and cross-border taxation. Research conducted by Austan Goolsbee has shown that applying the conventional tax policy to the internet commerce will reduce the number of buyers on the internet by up to 24 percent. Various countries are currently formulating their respective regulatory policies in an attempt to find solutions to problems posed by e-commerce.

本論文研究動機主要是體認電子商務所帶來產業革命的衝擊之後，探討稅制及傳統課稅理論是否有適用上之疑慮。研究目的在於瞭解下列事項：1、電子商務之「網路商店」的經營模式、交易型態及流程。2、電子商務所衍生的各項租稅問題。3、數位化商品在稅法上的定性。4、分析及評估電子商務發展對稅務行政執行所帶來的衝擊。研究架構是在瞭解電子商務定義及性質，從而進一步辨識電子商務環境下所引發的課稅爭議，並在租稅原則、課稅觀念、稽徵原則的理論基礎下，佐以國際間各國對電子商務課稅問題的主張，分析及檢視我國目前稅制的適用，最後歸納出結論及建議。本研究認為就課稅議題而言，在電子商務下有其獨特的考量點： 一、全球性銷售行為 電子商務之跨國際交易特別容易造成各國租稅管轄權的爭議。此外電子商務使得「新的公司型態-小型多國籍企業」更是快速發展設立，但傳統國際間租稅規範或絕大多數的各國稅法卻是以大型跨國際企業為其主要規範及稅捐稽查對象。再者現行科技亦未提供一個關於計算及支付稅賦的機制，無疑地將加深稅務行政的負擔，對於租稅的課徵有不利的影響。 二、遠端經營的網路商店 在電子商務的環境下，企業得以遠端營運網路商店。在關於電子商務新稅制尚未建立之前，伺服器的架設雖就稅法上的目的並不清楚且明確，因此網際網路無疑的將提供納稅義務人在網路上得以充分的選擇租稅管轄地。 三、匿名性 網際網路的匿名性，使得稅捐機關對網路交易者的身份和所在地不易辨識，並且藉由匿名式的電子付款工具，特別是電子現金的使用，將提高逃漏稅捐及侵蝕稅基的可能。因此可研議：1、加強有效應用目前現行的科技技術。2、關於稽核電子現金的新查核技術須加速發展出來。3、要求電子現金的發行者做為中間媒介，採用具交易記錄的電子現金系統，提供相關報告及資料。 四、數位化商品 數位化商品在課稅引發的爭議，除其定性問題外，特別在跨國際交易下，銷售數位化商品所得性質究竟為營業利潤、權利金或勞務報酬，國際間尚未有一致看法。而數位化技術亦造成在稅務行政課徵的難題。