We live in a different era, and this is a moment in history where innovation is rapid and changes everything. This is affecting the way we communicate, travel, study and pay taxes. We have moved from an agricultural society to an industrial one, and then to a service-based economy. The last type of society uses a lot of financial services, and it also requires tons of technology. This is an era where money can flow through the Internet from one place to the other immediately, and it has no barriers. It's also become a challenge for traditional institutions that get the money from the taxes.
How can they review the finances of the great online companies? Is it TIME to take new measures to control this growing virtual economy?
The online economy has become huge
There are people who sell a limited amount of goods and services through Internet, but there are also big companies like Amazon or eBay that move massive amounts of money online. These businesses can compete with traditional enterprises that were founded a long time ago. Online companies grow fast, so, more and more people become familiar with this new method of trading. These new businesses have huge market values, and they are giants with a lot of economic power.
Illegal economic activities
This is also possible that the Internet is already used by many companies and/or people that make illegal economic activities.
This way, they can inflate a lot of economic indicators and distort their financial reality altogether. For example, they can say that they have been exporting software to other countries to gain tax incentives from the government or loans from banks. The way to supervise these online activities is not easy because many people are completely unfamiliar with this way of trading.
Mafia can use it to send money
The Internet can also be used to send money from drugs, smuggling, and other Illegal Activities to workers associated with these activities. The mafia can pay their workers under the pretext that they are paying them for their services in legal, economic activities such as translation or software development.
Huge amounts of money can move from one place to another to pay for the dark services of people involved in illegal activities. The United States has to develop a special institution that supervises all the details of the online trade, then, America must join forces with other countries to make it global. There must be no space for illegal activities on the Internet.
