A Review on the Current Digital Tax Models Imposed on E-Commerce Transactions among Asia-Pacific Countries

Cross country trade has been visible since the 15th century where traders from India and China met up to trade their goods via the barter system. However, the growth of trade has been enhanced since then to include cross border trading while still maintaining the conventional way of doing business where customer and supplier interact face to face. Progressively, in the 20th century, the evolution of business became more global. Globalization has changed the patterns of trade around the world and specifically, the internet has exponentially developed and grown. The internet has not just modified the way the customers, firms and suppliers communicate, it has also rearranged the internal workings of companies and firms, and influenced the nature, foundation and strength of competition across the industries worldwide. The emergence of E-commerce is considered to be the new way of conducting global commerce or the improvement of contractual link among the sellers and buyers without either of them coming into substantial contact with each other. The shift from a physically oriented commercial environment to a knowledge-based electronic environment poses serious and substantial issues in relation to taxation and taxation regimes. This study details the digital tax models currently imposed among Asia-Pacific countries.