Paper's abstract

Bernard Plagniet, The New Taxes
The "new taxes" refer to the emergence of new taxable matters that led the law-makers to try some innovations, for instance the "eco-taxes", designed to fight pollution. In fact, two quite opposite aims may appear: on the one hand, searching for fiscal resources, which assumes the survival of the taxable matter, here the polluting activity, on the other hand, fighting pollution which, if it is successful, precisely entails the disappearance of the taxable matter. After a time of relative "euphoria", these eco-taxes are, at the moment, seldom used in France. In addition, new resources seemed promising: the sale of telephone licences. But once again, the initial prospects, which seemed fairly profitable to the State, quickly deteriorated du to the difficulties encountered by the telecommuni-cations firms. Finally, a new taxable matter has appeared with the development of operations carried through the internet. The taxation of these operations raises dreadful technical problems, concerning VAT as well as the taxation of profit. The European Commission and the Comity for fiscal affairs of the OECD have submitted several proposals as a solution.

Key Words : eco-tax, internet
t. 46, 2002 : p. 229-242

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