I thought it was very interesting to learn about taxes for online businesses. This is a concept that I would never really think to have big issues, but it’s not just black and white because the internet can be used anywhere. I figured the business would get taxed where their main location is, however, there are a lot of e-commerce business that do not have physical stores. In the slides it mentions how they already have permits for online retailers to trade based on the rules of their home country. They also touch on how email and electronic contracts are considered valid, which is surprising they are just now having this conversation. Growing up in a world full on technology, it’s hard to believe that at one time emails and electronic signatures weren’t valid. It was interesting to learn how big of a controversy taxes are.
Skyler Smith says
I thought it was interesting to learn about this as well. I also cannot imagine living in a world where technology like emails and electronic signatures were not the “norm” and statements made electronically were not considered valid. I assume that means almost everything was handled via mail, which must taken a long time, especially in the context of international business. It’s crazy to think that now contracts can be formed, signed, and validated all within a day from anywhere in the world! I also guess that I never really thought about how taxes would work for online businesses who do not have a physical location. That all seems a lot more complicated than I imagined!