Investigation of the efficiency of the digital economy in terms of fighting tax evasion

Today, traditional trade through digital platforms and the risks posed by globalization for countries cause significant risks in countries' tax systems. The primary reason causing those risks is the fact that physical assets have lost their importance with the digital transformation, and the concept of physical workplace remains incapable of covering the digital economy. It can be said that most of the problems related to the taxation of the digital economy arise from the sales of digital products and the activities of virtual companies. In this respect, it is aimed to determine which country has the taxation authority, how to control the goods and services that do not require physical delivery and can be delivered instantly, how to solve the problems that arise in determining the delivery time of digital products in terms of value added tax, cloud computing services, digital payments and service revenues. The emerging taxation issues of how revenues from sales of application programs and participating network platforms will be taxed. In addition, the uncertainty of the workplace concept of companies operating in the digital economy in tax legislation, the difficulty in distinguishing between limited and full taxpayers, the inability to determine the country from which the income is obtained, the inability to classify the income obtained and the difficulty of determining the tax base are other problems created by the digital economy in the field of taxation appears. Tax revenues, which have an important place among the income sources of countries, are eroded due to tax losses and evasion. This situation can occur in legal and illegal forms. It can be said that tax evasion is mostly caused by taxpayers and organizations seeing the taxes they have to pay as a burden for themselves. Since tax evasion causes a decrease in taxes, which are the main basis of public revenues, it reflects negatively on the decrease in the services provided by the public to its citizens. Thus, both the social and economic life of the citizens are adversely affected, and this situation creates various negativities in a comprehensive framework, up to the decrease in the effectiveness of taxes. The tendency of taxpayers to tax evasion has a negative effect on the economy as a result of reducing the public revenue of the state. It can be said that this situation has become more evident with the spread of the digital economy. While various legal regulations and sanctions have been regulated for platforms that should be digitally taxed by various countries, a necessary and comprehensive regulation has not been made in our country yet. With this study, it is primarily aimed to reveal the risks that occur in the field of taxation with the growth of the digital economy. In particular, the concept of tax evasion caused by the digital economy has been emphasized. It has been researched what kind of measures are taken to prevent tax losses caused by the digital economy in Turkey. The measures taken by selected countries in the fight against the concept of tax evasion, which emerged as a result of the digital economy, were examined comparatively. In the study, the measures taken by international organizations on the effects of digitalization on taxation were analyzed. As a result of the study, it has been determined that 'Digital Service Tax' has been implemented in Turkey and in many other countries in order to take precautions against the problems caused by the digital economy. It has been revealed that the regulations made by international organizations on the subject are limited to basic concepts such as base erosion. It has been concluded that international organizations such as OECD or EU should make global regulations in order to minimize the risks caused by the digital economy. It has emerged that international measures should be taken together with national measures in the fight against tax evasion, which is the most important of these risks.