TAXATION : TAXING DIGITAL ECONOMY: EXPERTS GET DOWN TO WORK.

The high-level expert group the European Commission has established to help shed some light on the Union's approach to taxing the digital economy met for the first time on 12 December.aThe group is chaired by Portugal's former Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar, and has six other members: Pierre Collin (French Council of State), Michael Devereux (OxfordaUniversity Centre for Business Taxation), Jim Hagemann Snabe (co-CEO of SAP AG), Tea Varrak (Innovation and Business Centre Mektory, Estonia), Mary Walsh (consultant, Ireland) and Bjorn Westberg (Jonkoping International Business School, Sweden).

Gaspar has been mandated to postpone, until mid-2014, a report listing the main problems of taxing the digital economy and proposing solutions. The solutions will need to ensure that the development of the digital economy - which is considered essential for growth and employment - does...