THE GLOBAL PROSPECTS OF TAXATION Cover Image

ГЛОБАЛНЕ ПОРЕСКЕ ИНИЦИЈАТИВЕ
THE GLOBAL PROSPECTS OF TAXATION

Author(s): Mileva Anđelković
Subject(s): Law on Economics
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Нишу
Keywords: globalization policy; tax harmonization; tax competition; international tax evasion; global taxes

Summary/Abstract: As the process of establishing international economic and financial relations between national economies is on the rise, many states encounter substantial difficulties in the process of collecting their tax claims. The most powerful countries in the world try to overcome this controversy by changing the international tax rules. The turning point was the financial-economic crisis of 2008-2009, when the international community more vigorously embarked on resolving international tax issues. The OECD, the G20, the UN, the EU and a number of other powerful international organizations continued their activities on establishing a stronger framework of the international tax system. Global tax initiatives embodied in the soft law regulations have changed (to a varied extent) the structure of national tax systems as well as the direction of national policies, and ultimately undermined the financial foundations of the social welfare state. The world’s “taxation landscape” is indisputably dominated by two major processes embodied in the the concepts of tax harmonization and tax competition. The global crisis in financing contemporary states has weakened their resistance towards more extensive international tax cooperation. As a result, they increasingly accept global tax standards and are more vigorously involved in the international exchange of tax information for the purpose of counteracting international tax fraud. Changes in national tax systems are necessarily accompanied by changing relations between tax administrations and multinational companies as large taxpayers. The traditional public law relations are gradually changed by introducing some elements of “negotiations and mutual agreement”, which are aimed at strengthening mutual trust and avoiding unnecessary disputes and costs. Although they are currently no more than theoretical assumptions and political considerations, there are proposals for introducing global taxes and establishing the world tax organization. Irrespective of the idealistic or utopian nature of these proposals, we simply cannot rule out the possibility that a future world disaster may serve as an valid excuse for accepting global taxes in order to remove the detrimental consequences of a force majeure. In that context, there is a growing number of countries that have been accepting the global tax standard on the automatic exchange of financial information, which has laid a solid legal and technical ground for introducing global taxation. The “global taxation network” is gradually extending to all tax payers, featuring full fiscal transparency. Unless such global plans are undermined, all natural and legal persons will de lege ferenda become prisoners of the global fiscus. Unfortunately, such an apocalyptic future of taxation is quite probable considering the determination of the powerful international organizations and the world elite acting through these institutions to implement the global political agenda.

  • Issue Year: LIV/2015
  • Issue No: 71
  • Page Range: 111-128
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Serbian