Assessing the Effectiveness of Traditional Trade Tax Regulations for Collecting Tax on E-Commerce in Iran

With the advancement of information technology and the expansion of the Internet, e-commerce has become an important component of the global economy, accounting for a significant share of commercial transactions. This development has created numerous challenges for tax systems, as traditional tax regulations designed for physical commerce. Considering that Article 51 of the Iranian Constitution states that no tax shall be imposed except by law, before the government looks at e-commerce tax revenues in Iran, the capacity of current tax regulations for collecting tax from e-commerce should be assessed. The main objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of traditional (current) trade tax regulations for collecting tax on e-commerce in Iran. . This study uses an analytical-descriptive method with a qualitative approach. The results of the research showed that Iran's tax laws at the level of basic and general laws of the Direct Tax Law (approved on 04/31/2015) and the Value Added Tax Law approved in 1400 have the necessary legal capacity for taxing e-commerce. However, the implementation of these laws at the level of executive regulations (especially Article 219 of the Direct Tax Law) and the structure of the conditions for proving exemptions suffer from a deep structural gap.