International tax competition with endogenous sequencing

This paper examines endogenous timing in an international tax competition model. Unlike existing studies, governments are assumed to decide not only tax rates but also whether they are set early or late. The Nash equilibrium provides four conclusions for alternative double tax allowances. First, tax deductions cause simultaneous tax competition, whereas tax credits yield sequential tax competition. Second, any double taxation relief would generate capital trade. Third, a credit system could maximize one country’s economic welfare but would lower another country’s economic welfare more than a deduction regime. Fourth, a home country’s government would choose credit regimes under a maximax rule, but select deduction methods under minimax and maximin rules, while all double tax allowances are indifferent to a host country. The findings resolve the question raised by Bond and Samuelson (Economic Journal 99:1099–1111, 1989) of why governments choose tax credits when tax deductions are clearly better. Namely, this paper shows that one country is better off but another is worse off with credits rather than deductions. Accordingly, we cannot clearly specify whether governments choose credit systems or deduction regimes. The possible double tax allowances employed by the governments depend on their own decision criterion.     

Do Taxes Matter for Foreign Direct Investment?

The tax sensitivity of foreign direct investment (FDI) has importantpolicy implications. If FDI is not responsive to taxation, thenit may be an appropriate target for taxation by the host country.This question is examined for Mexico by estimating the responseof FDI from retained earnings and transfers from abroad to thetax regimes in Mexico and the home country, the credit statusof multinationals, country risk factors, and regulatory andtrade regimes in Mexico. FDI in Mexico is found to be sensitiveto the tax regimes in Mexico and the United States, the creditstatus of multinationals, country credit ratings, and the regulatoryenvironment. Thus Mexico's current policies to dismantle regulationsand employ a tax system competitive with the United States areexpected to have salutory effects on FDI in Mexico.     

Optimal taxation and public provision for poverty reduction

The existing literature on optimal taxation typically assumes there exists a capacity to implement complex tax schemes, which is not necessarily the case for many developing countries. We examine the determinants of optimal redistributive policies in the context of a developing country that can only implement linear tax policies due to administrative reasons. Further, the reduction of poverty is typically the expressed goal of such countries, and this feature is also taken into account in our model. We derive the optimality conditions for linear income taxation, commodity taxation, and public provision of private and public goods for the poverty minimization case and compare the results to those derived under a general welfarist objective function. We also study the implications of informality on optimal redistributive policies for such countries. The exercise reveals non-trivial differences in optimal tax rules under the different assumptions.     

国际投资协定框架下的税收问题研究

作为典型的“国家管理权”行为,东道国的税收措施可享有主权豁免。在通常情况下,与税收有关的投资争议不具可仲裁性。然而,晚近的缔约和法律实践却表明,在国际投资领域,东道国税收主权的绝对豁免已被突破,私人可以依据国际投资协定的有关规定将东道国的税收措施诉至国际仲裁庭。为此,需要引入专门的“税收条款”,将可仲裁的税收事项限定于一定范围之内,以平衡东道国与外国投资者之间的利益。此类条款的引入也符合中国身兼投资输入大国和投资输出大国的发展中国家的综合利益。     

两个协定范本关于所得征税权分配规则的比较

本文详细比较了《OECD范本》和《UN范本》对营业利润、投资所得和财产所得的征税权分配规则。认为由于税收竞争已经削弱了国际双重征税,税收协定在很大程度上成为缔约国对税收收入的分享协议,中国在未来续签及谈判新税收协定时应更加自主以争取更多的税收利益。     

企业境外所得税收抵免政策解析

税收管辖权的重叠必然导致国际间重复课税。抵免法是各国推荐的消除重复课税的方法。本文在介绍国际税收抵免相关概念和原理的基础上,就我国企业境外所得税收抵免有关问题进行了分析解读,并比较了新旧政策的主要变化。     

Optimal factor and commodity taxation in a small open economy

A two-sector trade model with specific factors and perfect international capital mobility is used to analyze the optimal mix of factor and commodity taxation in a small open economy that faces domestic or international constraints on its tax instruments. In the unconstrained benchmark case, the small country will tax specific factors and domestic consumption but chooses zero tax rates for a selective production tax (i.e., an origin-based commodity tax) and a source-based tax on capital income. When commodity taxation must follow a combination of origin and destination principles, then this mixed commodity tax rate will be positive and its production effects are partly compensated in the optimum by a capital subsidy. These international restrictions interact with domestic constraints when rents accruing to fixed factors cannot be taxed by a separate instrument, and a positive tax rate on capital serves as an indirect way of rent taxation.     

Exemption vs. Credit Method in International Double Taxation Treaties

This paper examines the choice of international double taxation relief methods by two small countries that mutually exchange foreign direct investment. At the first stage, each country chooses between the exemption and the credit method (as prescribed by the OECD model treaty) and at the second stage, each country sets nationally optimal non-discriminatory capital tax rates. It is shown that in the subgame perfect equilibrium both countries choose the exemption method. Mutual application of the exemption method is also shown to yield the highest welfare for each country. While the tax export effect generally induces both countries to choose inefficiently high tax rates, this effect is weakest when both countries exempt foreign earned profits from domestic taxation.     

Bilateral effective tax rates and foreign direct investment

This paper computes effective (marginal and average) tax rates that account for bilateral aspects of taxation and, therefore, vary across country-pairs and years. These tax rates serve to estimate the impact of corporate taxation on outbound stocks of bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) among OECD countries between 1991 and 2002. The findings indicate that outbound FDI is positively related to the parent and host country tax burden and negatively associated with bilateral effective tax rates. Relying only on unilateral (country and time variant) rather than on both unilateral and bilateral (country-pair and time variant) effective tax rates leads to biased estimates of the impact of corporate taxation on FDI.     

Firm-specific forward-looking effective tax rates

This paper computes effective (marginal and average) tax rates that account for bilateral aspects of taxation and, therefore, vary across country-pairs and years. These tax rates serve to estimate the impact of corporate taxation on outbound stocks of bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) among OECD countries between 1991 and 2002. The findings indicate that outbound FDI is positively related to the parent and host country tax burden and negatively associated with bilateral effective tax rates. Relying only on unilateral (country and time variant) rather than on both unilateral and bilateral (country-pair and time variant) effective tax rates leads to biased estimates of the impact of corporate taxation on FDI.     

争取修订避免双重征税协定的国际范本

避免双重征税协定的两个国际范本,特别是经合组织范本,强调居民税收管辖权,其所确定的国际税收规则不利于发展中国家,有失公平合理,亟需修改.本文认为,我国作为最大的发展中国家,有责任与广大发展中国家联合在一起,争取全面修订两个国际税收协定范本,重构国际税收规则,并提出了修订的具体建议.     

Taxing Multinationals

This paper analyzes the effects of tax policy on the strategic choices of multinationals and on national welfare. Contrary to existing theory, in the absence of foreign taxation, deferral of home-country taxation until earnings on outbound FDI are repatriated is generally superior to including those earnings in current income. This holds even if the home country taxes domestic investment less generously. This is also generally superior to exempting foreign income. Foreign taxes permit foreign governments to capture some of the pre-tax economic rent from the home-country FDI; this reduces the benefit to the home country of more generous taxation of outbound FDI.     

An empirical study of the impact of corporate taxation on the global allocation of foreign direct investment: a broad tax attractiveness index approach

The question of whether a country’s corporate tax regime has a significant influence on the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) into that country is an important consideration in the design of national tax policy. This is especially relevant today in view of the recent increase in the global mobility of capital and subsequent increase in the importance of FDI to nations’ economies. Although several prior quantitative studies have investigated the link between taxation and FDI, they have tended to be restricted in geographical scope and in their measure of taxation.This study constructs indices of “corporate tax attractiveness” for selected countries and then analyses the relationship between the indices and measures of the flow of FDI into those countries. The indices are constructed by obtaining evaluations from international investors and taxation experts on the various attributes of the tax systems of those selected countries. A significant positive relationship was found to exist between the indices and measures of FDI inflows, and between individual tax system attributes and those inflows, thus adding support to the supposition that host country corporate taxation influences the size of FDI inflows.     

Withholding tax rates on dividends: symmetries versus asymmetries or single- versus multi-rated double tax treaties

Out of all double tax treaties (DTTs) in force in 2012, around 41% are symmetric (single-rated) and 59% are asymmetric (multi-rated), i.e., they prescribe different dividend withholding tax rates depending on the foreign investor’s ownership fraction. The paper investigates the reasons for this phenomenon, namely why some countries in their DTTs prefer homogenous withholding tax rates over separate rates for participation and portfolio dividends. In a theoretical model, I demonstrate why home countries may have an interest in a high withholding tax rate in the host country, even though they do not receive the revenue from this tax. Further, I find confirming evidence that a reason for having multi-rated withholding taxes on dividends is an existing spatial dependence on the rates of the countries’ peers that may be a driving factor for setting multi-rated taxes. Finally, I confirm that the spread itself (i.e., the difference between the portfolio and participation dividends negotiated in the tax treaty) is also affected by the peer countries.

     

The theory of optimal taxation: what is the policy relevance?

The paper discusses the implications of optimal tax theory for the debates on uniform commodity taxation and neutral capital income taxation. While strong administrative and political economy arguments in favor of uniform and neutral taxation remain, recent advances in optimal tax theory suggest that the information needed to implement the differentiated taxation prescribed by optimal tax theory may be easier to obtain than previously believed. The paper also points to the strong similarity between optimal commodity tax rules and the rules for optimal source-based capital income taxation.      

我国应对数字服务税的内在困境与破解之道

实体经济向数字经济的转换,突破了传统税收征管实体联结度规则"壁垒"。税法领域的相关法律缺失,已不能有效解决数字经济时代线上线下税收不公的法律问题。面对数字服务领域的税收问题,世界各国采取的办法或是开征数字服务税,或是修改国内法律,又或是等待国际统一规则的制定。开征数字税的国家在纳税起征条件、税率、征税对象、"安全港"条文的豁免条款等方面存在差异,我国在应对"数字资产"所有者确定、运营商与客户之间的"互益行为"、无形资产估值等方面存在困境。面对数字税的开征,我国应从现实考量出发,转变传统实体"源头税收"观念、强化数据信息机制在税收征管领域的应用,并以国际协作的方式来应对这场数字税收领域的革命性变化。     

European tax systems and the neutrality of corporate financing policy

The different tax systems of European illustrate the variety of ways in which the double taxation of dividends can be reduced. This paper analyses the effect of corporate financing policy under the imputation, dual rate, mixed and classical tax systems, and derives conditions for neutrality of the systems with respect to financing policy-neutrality in the sense that no type of financial policy has favourable tax treatment. The effect of the capital gains tax and heterogenous personal tax rates across individuals are analysed by using a model of stock value. Neutrality depend on the parameters of the tax system and a weighted average of personal tax rates.     

数字经济国际税收规则变革趋势与中国应对举措

面对突如其来的新冠肺炎疫情,数字经济仍展现出强大的韧性与活力.逆势上扬的数字经济对渐进式的国际税收规则改革提出了全方位的挑战.G20、OECD致力于制定应对经济数字化税收挑战解决方案,提出了“统一方法”应对方案,而部分国家出于维护本国税收利益采取了单边行动,新一轮的国际税收改革博弈已开始.我国作为全球数字经济第二大国,在遵循税收公平和税收中性原则的基础上,需尽快改革常设机构认定等数字经济税收规则,运用数字技术提高我国数字化税收征管水平,推动数字经济征税权分配的国际合作.     

论税收之债的自力执行

税收之债具有自力执行的效力。所谓税收之债的自力执行,是指税务机关行使征税职权,遇有纳税人拒不履行按期足额纳税义务时,税务机关可以直接采取强制措施迫使纳税人履行纳税义务。各国税法之所以赋予税收之债自力执行的效力,主要是基于行政效力先定、税收确实及效率原则以及税收的公益性等因素的考量。同时,为了有效防止或监督税务机关滥施行政强制现象的发生,我国税法对税务机关自力执行权的行使范围、条件和程序予以了严格限制。     

国际税收管辖权协调问题研究

本文介绍国际税收管辖权的三种形式以及国际上的有关处理方式,重点说明我国对此的认识和实践,提出在体现国际税收管辖权划分的政府间避免双重征税协定中,要以立足国情、维护国家权益为出发点,协调处理好缔约双方税收管辖权的关系。