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Is a digital services tax State aid? A feature of all the DSTs described in Deeksha Rathi’s earlier post is that they apply only to digital businesses that generate global and domestic revenues above certain (generally very high) thresholds.  These proposed taxes focus solely on very large m... Is a digital services tax potentially State aid? State aid is not a tax specific concept, but rather a more general principle designed to stop EU member states from interfering in competition by giving selective advantages to particular taxpayers, in order to influence investment decisions or distort tr... What makes the UK so attractive to fintech? The recently published brochure, UK FinTech State of the Nation, summarises the UK's fintech industry and demonstrates the UK's attractiveness as a destination for innovation in finance. The UK is a global fintech leader with investors putting more money ... Should the potential for misuse stop us from embracing new tech? Facial recognition is back in the news this week as the South Wales police force defends its use of the technology after an office worker claimed it breached his privacy and data protection rights.  The technology in question allows the user to map faces ... Taxing the digital economy: my way or the highway will not lead to a longer-term solution There is a common recent development in the tax systems of the UK, France, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, and Spain. All of these countries have announced some version of a digital services tax. The table below compares those versions briefly. Co... German RETT reform underway The German Federal Ministry of Finance recently unveiled a long-awaited draft bill for reform of the German Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) Act. This would substantially broaden the scope of the German RETT provisions regarding the taxation of share deal ... Taxing the digital economy: my way or the highway will not lead to a longer-term solution There is a common recent development in the tax systems of the UK, France, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, and Spain. All of these countries have announced some version of a digital services tax. The table below compares those versions briefly. Co... 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health issue each year. Could tech be part of the answer? New articles and studies are published almost daily bemoaning the negative impact of technology on our mental health - but could technology actually help form part of our defence armoury too? The Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare ce... Polish retail tax State aid case paves the way for digital services taxes Poland introduced a progressive tax based on turnover in 2016.  Small shops with low monthly turnover paid no tax, whereas large supermarkets (mainly owned by foreign companies) paid a top rate of as much as 1.4% of their turnover. The Commission found th... Tax and climate action: the UK's proposed plastic packaging tax Clearly, the pressure on governments to take climate action is increasing: each Friday, students all over the world strike to demand such action, Ireland and the UK have become the first two countries to declare a climate emergency and Australia’s upcomin...