數字經濟背景下《UN範本》服務徵稅條款的修訂探析

An Analysis on Proposed Changes to Provisions of the UN Model Tax Convention Dealing with Services in the Context of Digital Economy

在現代漢語中，雖然服務通常是指那些不以實物形式而以勞動形式為他人提供某種效用的有償或無償活動，但是，無論在經濟領域還是法律領域，都缺乏統一的服務定義。從服務與其他經濟要素的聯繫來看，數字經濟背景下的網基服務屬於典型的與信息（知識）相結合的服務類型，與傳統經濟背景下的服務的明顯不同在於，網基服務的供方在用戶所在國具備有形存在不再是其提供網基服務的客觀必備條件。現行《UN範本》的服務徵稅條款不能有效應對網基服務交易的調整，因此，從消除重複徵稅和確保公平分享國際稅收利益的角度出發，《UN範本》的相關條款應當根據網基服務的技術特點作出相應的修訂和調整。

There is no unified definition of the term' service'for economic or legal purposes even though the term'service'means the act or action of doing something useful for other people irrespective of free of charge or not in contemporary Chinese. Viewed from the linkage of services and other economic elements, the cyber-based services in the context of digital economy belong to a typical type of services combined with information (knowledge). The apparent difference between the cyber-based services and services in traditional economy is that the supplier of the former does not necessarily have any physical present in consumers'countries when doing its business. The provisions of the UN Model dealing with services cannot effectively respond to challenges from the development of cyber-based services, and therefore need to be revised without prejudice to the elimination of international double taxation and equal share of international tax revenue among countries involved in cross border cyber-based services.