In a time of depressed revenue-gathering, future revenue should not be lost due to the increasing use of the Internet for transactions and business. The relationship between taxation and technology has always been interactive, complex, and dynamic. With e-commerce, however, the complexity is accentuated with questions including how to reconcile national and fiscal physical boundaries with the borderless global Internet. Traditionally, a government's authority to tax has been based on territory and jurisdiction. These systems now face a serious challenge from the escalation of e-commerce.
There are few countries that do not use taxation as a means to fund the expenditures necessary to maintain social and economic equilibrium. However, it is not easy to achieve the balance of levying taxes that will provide the required level of comfort and lifestyle for people while taxing individual taxpayers in a way that best reflects their equitable ability to pay. Defining what is to be taxed and how it is to be taxed is fraught with difficulties.