Legal Regulation of Taxation of Digital Services in Russia and Foreign Countries

The purpose of this graduate qualification work was to establish a certain approach to the regulation of taxation of digital services in Russia and foreign countries. The objectives of the study were based on the study of international acts and proposals related to the taxation of digital services, as well as national approaches to the establishment of digital services tax, to determine what is meant by the phenomenon of "digital services tax", what types of it exist and what role it plays in the tax architecture of the country; differentiate between digital services tax and Russian value added tax (hereinafter - VAT) on electronic services; formulate prospects for reforming taxation rules in the field of digital services; systematize and substantiate initiatives and trends for the introduction of digital services tax in foreign countries and in the Russian Federation, determine the need to introduce a digital tax and make proposals for its regulation. The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, each with paragraphs, and a conclusion. First of all, the study seeks to study approaches to tax on digital services at the international level, what it means, what it refers to, how it is calculated and "tied" to the territory where it will be paid, what kind of discussion is being conducted by stakeholders as part of the development of an agreement on its adoption. Then the author compares the approaches of different countries that have already installed and administer DST, and highlights the problematic issues in the current DST regulation at the national level. To determine the need to introduce a specific DST in the Russian Federation, a comparative analysis of DST in the understanding of the OECD, the EU and European states with the Russian VAT on electronic services is carried out in the future. The second chapter, firstly, is aimed at identifying some of the difficulties arising from the introduction of DST and hindering its administration by foreign states, studying the prospects for regulating the tax on digital services and making proposals on possible ways to correct the shortcomings of regulation, and secondly, the author considers the prospects and the need for the introduction of DST in Russia unilaterally or upon the adoption of an agreed decision at the OECD level. The study led to the following conclusions: 1) The Russian Federation will need to unilaterally develop its tax on digital services based on the experience of European countries in the event that by the end of the year the OECD has not reached an agreement on the introduction of DST or if such an agreement is be "advisory" in nature; 2) First of all, it is necessary to tax the services of online advertising targeted at users of the Russian Federation, and services for the sale of data by foreign digital companies generated by Russian users on digital platforms; 3) Russian VAT on electronic services cannot substitute for tax on digital services; 4) A digital services tax (digital tax) should be levied on the revenues of digital companies in the countries where the users of their services are located, without the need for the physical presence of such companies in those jurisdictions.