Introducion

E-Commerce: the buying and selling of goods on the internet. When it comes to e-commerce, Spain falls a little behind much of Europe. Do to a lot of techincal, legal, and cultural issues, internet usage in Spain is dfficult and even more so to do business in. It is ranked 22nd in the world for internet hosts with 3,264,000. The availability of internet to the Spanish society is likely a major difficulty for e-commerce in the country. As time progresses, internet is becoming more widespread and common.

Availability to Consumers Issues and Solutions

The Latest population estimates are 40,525,002 people. Of those people only 27,028,934 of them are internet users. This is approximately 66.8% which is a great improvement from previousyears and shows great promise for online business. It is a growing industry, in 2000 only about 13.2% of the population had internet access. Just in 2006, only 43.9% of the population had internet. In two years to 2008, the percentage of users has grown tremendously. To promote e-commece, the Spanish government encouraged growth starting with the information and technology plan which includes unbundling the local loop to permit internet service providers (ISPs) direct contact with users and a flat tarriff for internet access. The introduction of 3G wireless to Europe encouraged growth of e-commerce in the country.

E-commerce in Spain Today

Spain is currently in a booming period of growth in e-commerce. Many businesses are using the web to sell and many people are using the web to buy. The majority of B2C (business to consumer) purchases are made in the travel and entertainment industry.The primary online sales come from airplane tickets, followed by hotels and travel entertainment. The primary online market consists of 62% male and 38% women with the primary age of online users being between 26 and 35.

Legal Factors

Business must follow stricter codes when dealing with B2C over B2B. With a consumer beng the final recipient, consumer protection legislation comes into practice. The Spanish government has made an effort to regulate online transactions with things such as the e-commerce and Information Society Services Law and the Electronic Signature Law. These are attempts to built trust in online transactions and protect the parties invovled.

Early Problems of Taxing

• the permant establishment issue: does this include a server or website?
• Legal characterizaton of income generated by the sale of goods and services on the Internet
• Dertermination of taxable income and the transfer pricing problem
• Application of the place of effective management rule to determine the tax residence of taxpayers engaging in e-commerce

References

World Stats Retreived on October 10, 2009

        http://www.internetworldstats.com/eu/es.htm

Economics and Trade Offices of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Retreived on October 10, 2009

        http://www.us.spainbusiness.com/icex/cda/controller/pageInv/0,2958,35868_1449774_1027804_0,00.html

E-commerce in Spain meets 2008 forecasts, Retreived on October 9, 2009

        http://www.emarketservices.com/start/index.html?cl=ems&mi=6&mi2=1&mi3=1&so=1&ca=news&ni=1&ci=1618

Doing Business in Spain, Retrieved on October 10 2009

        http://www.dfat.gov.au/PUBLICATIONS/business_spain/doing_business_spain.pdf

CIA World Factbook, Retrieved on October 9 2009

        https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html

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