Due to the global, virtual, intangible, anonymous, instant, paperless, and changeable attributes, the regulatory difficulties of cross-border e-commerce retail imports are concentrated in the following points.
1. The negative impact of the increasing credit gap in the inclusive era
Cross-border e-commerce is an international business activity in which entities in different customs territories complete transactions through e-commerce platforms, electronic settlement and payment, and cross-border logistics and commodity delivery. Because it conforms to the trend of trade globalization and can provide goods efficiently, quickly, with high quality and at a low price, it has gradually become a means for domestic residents to pursue high-quality life and enjoy global inclusiveness.
At the same time, the virtuality, intangibility, instantness, anonymity and other characteristics of the Internet or electronics make the credit crisis of the subject infinitely magnified and difficult to trace, and the small and micro-sized transaction subjects will also expand the credit crisis in the inclusive era, bringing risks and difficulties in supervision and taxation. In addition, cross-border e-commerce also has an impact on the adjustment of the national industrial structure and the development of foreign trade, impacting the tax policy and commodity supervision model under the traditional model, and bringing changes in trade thresholds and policy adjustments.
2. Trade fragmentation and strong impact on the retail industry
According to the cross-border e-commerce retail import management regulations, my country’s cross-border e-commerce imports have the characteristics of wide coverage of objects, trivial and complex commodities, and large transaction information volume. In addition, due to the final consumer group and the nature of retail, it presents fragmented characteristics, which are manifested as follows:
First, sellers rely on the platform to conduct direct transactions with consumers and directly compete with retail entities, showing subject fragmentation;
Second, the globalization of commodity sources and the micro-miniaturization of consumer groups have led to a point-to-point network distribution of commodity transactions around the world, showing commodity fragmentation; third, the global flow of logistics and the diversified collection of platform data have led to the fragmentation of the information chain, making data analysis and trade management more difficult.
3. Virtual networks exacerbate the difficulties of customs supervision
The network has brought about the virtualization of transactions, making cross-border e-commerce unique.
First, the intangibility and anonymity have increased the difficulty of supervision and punishment, resulting in the long-term existence of counterfeit and shoddy products driven by profits and the decline in the quality of regular brands.
Secondly, the small-scale nature of the subject and the globalization of the industrial chain have aggravated the difficulties of quality control and after-sales, cut off consumers’ perception of goods, and the openness of the virtual world will infinitely amplify online violence, moral condemnation, trust attacks, etc., affecting the fairness of transactions and the difficulty of customs supervision.
Third, globalization transfers the jurisdiction of taxation, the intangibility and immediacy change the taxation subject, the virtuality and anonymity reduce the cost of tax evasion, and the paperless and changeable nature increase the difficulty of obtaining legal evidence, which in turn increases the difficulty of tax collection and management of cross-border e-commerce imports, impacting the tax collection and management system under the traditional trade model.