eBusiness Regulation and Taxation- WebQuest

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Facts

Where there is commerce, there is regulation and taxation. This will not change in the Information Age, especially as businesses increase their reliance on the Internet as a means of generating wealth in a global economy.

However, the Internet makes it much more difficult for governments to regulate and tax:

1. The Internet transcends the geo-political borders that generally define the jurisdictional limits of a government's authority.

2. The services and digital products that are an increasingly important component of an Information Age economy, are not as easy to tax and regulate as the output of the Industrial and Agricultural Ages.

3. The factors of production in the Information Age (computer technology and IT professionals) are mobile and readily moved to "friendly" jurisdictions.

4. Internet-mediated innovation and evolution in commercial activities occurs very quickly.

In other words, there are challenges to imposing the principles and structures of governance that evolved during the Agricultural and Industrial Ages to Information Age commerce.

Go to the Issues Page.

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