Corporate Income Taxes under Pressure


Book Description

The book describes the difficulties of the current international corporate income tax system. It starts by describing its origins and how changes, such as the development of multinational enterprises and digitalization have created fundamental problems, not foreseen at its inception. These include tax competition—as governments try to attract tax bases through low tax rates or incentives, and profit shifting, as companies avoid tax by reporting profits in jurisdictions with lower tax rates. The book then discusses solutions, including both evolutionary changes to the current system and fundamental reform options. It covers both reform efforts already under way, for example under the Inclusive Framework at the OECD, and potential radical reform ideas developed by academics.




Taxing Multinationals


Book Description

Eden examines how transfer pricing has been handled in different disciplines, including international business, economics, accounting, law and public policy.




The Effects of Taxation on Multinational Corporations


Book Description

The tax rules of the United States and other countries have intended and unintended effects on the operations of multinational corporations, influencing everything from the formation and allocation of capital to competitive strategies. The growing importance of international business has led economists to reconsider whether current systems of taxing international income are viable in a world of significant capital market integration and global commercial competition. In an attempt to quantify the effect of tax policy on international investment choices, this volume presents in-depth analyses of the interaction of international tax rules and the investment decisions of multinational enterprises. Ten papers assess the role played by multinational firms and their investment in the U.S. economy and the design of international tax rules for multinational investment; analyze channels through which international tax rules affect the costs of international business activities; and examine ways in which international tax rules affect financing decisions of multinational firms. As a group, the papers demonstrate that international tax rules have significant effects on firms' investment and other financing decisions.




U.S. Investment Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017


Book Description

There is no consensus on how strongly the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) has stimulated U.S. private fixed investment. Some argue that the business tax provisions spurred investment by cutting the cost of capital. Others see the TCJA primarily as a windfall for shareholders. We find that U.S. business investment since 2017 has grown strongly compared to pre-TCJA forecasts and that the overriding factor driving it has been the strength of expected aggregate demand. Investment has, so far, fallen short of predictions based on the postwar relation with tax cuts. Model simulations and firm-level data suggest that much of this weaker response reflects a lower sensitivity of investment to tax policy changes in the current environment of greater corporate market power. Economic policy uncertainty in 2018 played a relatively small role in dampening investment growth.




A Firm Lower Bound: Characteristics and Impact of Corporate Minimum Taxation


Book Description

This paper examines the role of minimum taxes and attempts to quantify their impact on economic activity. Minimum taxes can be effective at shoring up the corporate tax base and enhancing the perceived equity of the tax system, potentially motivating broader taxpayer compliance. Where political and administrative constraints prevent reforms to the standard corporate income tax, a minimum tax can help mitigate base erosion from excessive tax incentives and avoidance. Using a new panel dataset that catalogues changes in minimum tax regimes over time around the world, firm-level analysis suggests that the introduction or reform of a minimum tax is associated with an increase in the average effective tax rate of just over 1.5 percentage points with respect to turnover and of around 10 percent with respect to operating income. Minimum taxes based on modified corporate income lead to the largest increases in effective tax rates, followed by those based on assets and turnover.




Imposing Standards


Book Description

In Imposing Standards, Martin Hearson shifts the focus of political rhetoric regarding international tax rules from tax havens and the Global North to the damaging impact of this regime on the Global South. Even when not exploited by tax dodgers, international tax standards place severe limits on the ability of developing countries to tax businesses, denying the Global South access to much-needed revenue. The international rules that allow tax avoidance by multinational corporations have dominated political debate about international tax in the United States and Europe, especially since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Hearson asks how developing countries willingly gave up their right to tax foreign companies, charting their assimilation into an OECD-led regime from the days of early independence to the present day. Based on interviews with treaty negotiators, policymakers and lobbyists, as well as observation at intergovernmental meetings, archival research, and fieldwork in Africa and Asia, Imposing Standards shows that capacity constraints and imperfect negotiation strategies in developing countries were exploited by capital-exporting states, shielding multinationals from taxation and depriving nations in the Global South of revenue they both need and deserve. Thanks to generous funding from the Gates Foundation, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.




Schwarz on Tax Treaties


Book Description

Schwarz on Tax Treaties is the definitive analysis of tax treaties from United Kingdom and Irish perspectives and provides in-depth expert analysis of the interpretation and interaction of those treaty networks with the European Union and international law. The sixth edition significantly develops the earlier work with enhanced commentary and is updated to include the latest UK, Irish domestic and treaty developments, international and EU law, including: Covered Tax Agreements modified by the BEPS Multilateral Instrument; judicial decisions of Ireland, the UK and foreign courts on UK and Irish treaties; Digital Services Tax; treaty binding compulsory arbitration; Brexit and the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement; taxpayer rights in exchange of information; taxpayer rights in EU cross-border collection of taxes; attribution of profits to permanent establishments; and EU DAC 6 Disclosure of cross-border planning. Case law developments including: UK Supreme Court in Fowler v HMRC; Indian Supreme Court in Engineering Analysis Centre of Excellence Private Limited and Others v CIT; Australian Full Federal Court in Addy v CoT; French Supreme Administrative Court in Valueclick; English Court of Appeal in Irish Bank Resolution Corporation v HMRC; JJ Management and others v HMRC; United States Tax Court in Adams Challenge v CIR; UK Tax Tribunals in Royal Bank of Canada v HMRC; Lloyd-Webber v HMRC; Esso Exploration and Production v HMRC; Glencore v HMRC; McCabe v HMRC; Padfield v HMRC; Davies v HMRC; Uddin v HMRC; English High Court in Minera Las Bambas v Glencore; Kotton v First Tier Tribunal; and CJEU in N Luxembourg I, and others (the ‘Danish beneficial ownership cases’); État belge v Pantochim; College Pension Plan of British Columbia v Finanzamt München; HB v Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale. About the Author Jonathan Schwarz BA, LLB (Witwatersrand), LLM (UC Berkeley), FTII is an English Barrister at Temple Tax Chambers in London and is also a South African Advocate and a Canadian and Irish Barrister. His practice focuses on international tax disputes as counsel and as an expert and advises on solving cross-border tax problems. He is a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, King’s College London University. He has been listed as a leading tax Barrister in both the Legal 500, for international corporate tax, and Chambers’ Guide to the Legal Profession, for international transactions and particular expertise in transfer pricing. He has been lauded in Who’s Who Legal, UK Bar for his ‘brilliant’ handling of cross-border tax problems. In Chambers Guide, he is identified as ‘the double tax guru’ with ‘extraordinary depth of knowledge and experience when it comes to tax treaty issues and is a creative thinker and a clear and meticulous writer’.




Profit Shifting and Tax Base Erosion


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of current techniques for profit shifting and tax base erosion in the area of corporate taxation and measurement. Firstly, it explains the relevance of the issue at hand – profit shifting and base erosion in the context of the 21st century. In turn, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of available techniques for the identification and measurement of profit shifting and base erosion, which adopt both the macro and micro perspective. It also provides examples from selected post-communist countries now in the EU, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Concrete recommendations for economic policy round out the coverage.




International Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Review of the Channels, Magnitudes, and Blind Spots


Book Description

This paper reviews the rapidly growing empirical literature on international tax avoidance by multinational corporations. It surveys evidence on main channels of corporate tax avoidance including transfer mispricing, international debt shifting, treaty shopping, tax deferral and corporate inversions. Moreover, it performs a meta analysis of the extensive literature that estimates the overall size of profit shifting. We find that the literature suggests that, on average, a 1 percentage-point lower corporate tax rate will expand before-tax income by 1 percent—an effect that is larger than reported as the consensus estimate in previous surveys and tends to be increasing over time. The literature on tax avoidance still has several unresolved puzzles and blind spots that require further research.




The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay


Book Description

“The most important book on government policy that I’ve read in a long time.” —David Leonhardt, New York Times Even as they have become fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have seen their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Meanwhile, working-class Americans have been asked to pay more. The Triumph of Injustice presents a forensic investigation into this dramatic transformation, written by two economists who have revolutionized the study of inequality. Blending history and cutting-edge economic analysis, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America’s tax system alongside a visionary, democratic, and practical reinvention of taxes.