Determinants of the variability in corporate effective tax rates and tax reform: Evidence from Australia

This study examines the determinants of the variability in corporate effective tax rates in Australia spanning the Ralph Review of Business Taxation reform. Our results indicate that corporate effective tax rates are associated with several major firm-specific characteristics, including firm size, capital structure (leverage) and asset mix (capital intensity, inventory intensity and R&D intensity). While the Ralph Review tax reform had a significant impact on many of these associations, corporate effective tax rates continue to be associated with firm size, capital structure and asset mix after the tax reform.     

Determinants of the Variability of Corporate Effective Tax Rates: Evidence from Romanian Listed Companies

In this paper, I investigate the determinants of firm-specific corporate tax rates for nonfinancial companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange over a twelve-year period (2000-2011). Using a fixed effects panel data estimation model to account for individual firm heterogeneity, I find that capital intensity, leverage, and loss carry-forward provisions negatively affect corporate effective tax rates; company size and labor intensity have no effect; and profitability has a positive effect. Going beyond the deterministic investigation, the paper cannot provide evidence of tax-planning activities for the companies considered. Moreover, legal differences between financial and tax accounting related to provisions are found to have a positive effect on firm-specific effective tax rates.     

The incentive to locate a multinational firm: The effect of tax reforms in the United Kingdom

The advent of the single European market has focused attention on the structure of international tax incentives for the location of multinational business. Multinationals that channel foreign income through the United Kingdom have been likely to suffer double taxation in the form of surplus advance corporation tax when they subsequently distribute the income to a foreign parent. This paper shows that the 1993 U.K. tax reforms create a significant reduction in the tax cost of locating in the United Kingdom, relative to traditionally favorable tax regimes such as the Netherlands.     

Corporate tax reforms and tax-motivated profit shifting: evidence from the EU

This paper examines whether the profit-shifting trend in Europe during 2003–2013 can be explained by tax policy changes. Consistent with prior literature, we find that affiliates’ profits are sensitive to tax rate changes. However, we document that tax base–broadening reforms have mitigated the incentives for both inward and outward profit shifting. In particular, we find that anti-avoidance rules prevent multinational companies from shifting profits out of their foreign affiliates, whereas other tax base–broadening rules, such as restrictions on the deductibility of tax losses or on group tax relief, reduce the incentives for multinational companies to shift profits into foreign affiliates. Furthermore, we find evidence of a downward trend in profit shifting across European countries, especially when the tax enforcement is stricter. Overall, these results suggest that broader tax bases and stricter tax enforcement have successfully curbed this particular tax strategy.     

Corporate debt and financial balance sheet adjustment: a comparison of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany

The level of UK corporate debt directly affects financial stability in the United Kingdom because a significant amount of the exposure of the UK financial system is to UK corporates. Our paper provides a comparison of the determinants of corporate debt in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The comparison serves to benchmark our findings about the determinants of UK corporate debt. In addition, the UK financial sector is significantly exposed to the corporate sectors in the United States, Germany and France. The model assesses the contribution of investment, acquisitions, cash flows and market-to-book values to the determination of debt, and also the tendency of debt to revert to its optimum level. Debt was found to be positively related to the financing needs of the firm, and the optimum level of debt to be negatively related to the market-to-book ratio. This casts some light on the procyclicality of debt.     

A case against the consolidation of foreign subsidiaries’ and a United States parent’s financial statements

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States usually require that companies which own more than 50% of the voting stock of foreign corporations prepare consolidated financial statements. The foreign financial statements must be recast into US GAAP and the foreign currency financial statements must be translated into US dollars. Alternative methods of translating foreign currency have major impacts on consolidated financial statements and on the behavior of management. Further, foreign subsidiary financial statements which are recast into US GAAP are less useful than the originals, and US users cannot analyze them without reference to the foreign environment. The interests of financial statement users are better served by alternative presentations of foreign currency denominated accounts rather than by consolidation.     

美、英、日财产税税制特征和对我国的启示

本文首先介绍了美国、英国、日本三国财产税的基本情况,并总结了各国财产税税制设计的特征,在此基础上,剖析了我国房地产税制现存的问题,对我国开征物业税提出了相关政策建议。     

美加两国税务稽查管理特色及对我国的启示

美国、加拿大两国同属发达国家,也都实行联邦制。先进的税务稽查制度对两国经济高速发展起到了明显的促进作用。本文以美国、加拿大两国为例,归纳和分析两国在税务稽查管理方面的先进经验和做法,以期对我国税务稽查的改革和完善有所裨益。     

Effectiveness of minimum tax legislation and its effect on corporate financial reporting: A comparative analysis between the United States and India

This paper reports a comparative analysis of the experience of introducing minimum tax legislation in the US and India. Given the differences in the economic and market settings in the two countries, one would expect the impact of the regulation and the corporate response to its introduction to be different. Our empirical analysis, however, indicates that the response to the minimum tax legislation in India is very similar to that in the US. The evidence indicates that the minimum tax legislation is not the best means of achieving horizontal equity among taxpayers, given its significant administrative and compliance costs and the manipulative reporting response it generates from the corporate sector.     

美国财产税的估税周期与估税方法

本文首先介绍了美国财产税在美国地方财政中的重要地位及财产税的基本税制构成,进而对美国财产税的估税周期与估税方法进行了详细分析,以期为我国今后可能开征的物业税税制设计提供参考。     

Mobile people, mobile capital and tax neutrality: Sustaining a market for Offshore Finance Centres

This paper examines the self-reported effects on business performance, sustainability and confidence following international initiatives to regulate Offshore Finance Centres (OFCs). Since the late 1990s small countries and territories have been encouraged and pressured by multilateral organisations and supranational institutions to exchange information on civil and criminal tax matters. Interview based research in Australia, Andorra, Guernsey, Samoa and Singapore has been carried out to determine how OFC clients have reacted to these initiatives along with their impacts on the offshore sector, including local economies and societies. This paper shows that these international programs have caused contraction and reorganisation in leading OFCs. However, their diverse clientele and access to established markets for global financial services continues to make them attractive locales for fund management, trusts, captive insurance and private banking. The effects on OFCs located in smaller, developing countries have been much more severe, with reports that these jurisdictions are facing major problems sustaining a share of the worldwide market for financial services and products. This suggests that because of the uneven consequences of international efforts to regulate offshore finance in selected jurisdictions, these initiatives may actually increase tax competition rather than reduce it, at least in the short term. For multilateral policies to be effective, it may well be necessary for wealthy and poor nations, including OFCs (which include some of the world's poorest and wealthiest jurisdictions) to determine if tax competition contributes to or ameliorates the inconsistencies and contradictions of globalisation and the uneven development that it produces on a worldwide scale.     

An examination of real interest rates in the United States, Canada, France, and Germany during the recent floating exchange rate period

This study reexamines the international linkage of ex-ante real interest rates using the theory of cointegrated processes. The univariate unit root tests suggest the existence of a nonstationary real interest rate in the United States, Canada, and (the former) West Germany. An ex-ante real interest rate is obtained by subtracting estimates of inflation from the nominal interest rate. The expected inflation rates are obtained by modeling changes in monthly CPI values as autoregressive moving average (ARMA) processes. A multivariate test for unit roots indicates that there are two cointegrating vectors, or one common stochastic trend, for the system of three nonstationary real interest rates. In addition, the log-likelihood ratio test fails to reject the null hypothesis that, in the long run, real interest rates in the United States are equal to those in Canada and West Germany.     

The impact of monetary policy shocks on stock prices: Evidence from Canada and the United States

Using structural VAR models with short-run restrictions appropriate for Canada and the United States, we empirically examine whether trade and financial market openness matter for the impact on and transmission to stock prices of monetary policy shocks. We find that, in Canada, the immediate response of stock prices to a domestic contractionary monetary policy shock is small and the dynamic response is brief, whereas in the United States, the immediate response of stock prices to a similar shock is relatively large and the dynamic response is relatively prolonged. We find that these differences are largely driven by differences in financial market openness and hence different dynamic responses of monetary policy shocks between the two countries that we model in this paper.     

新企业会计准则体系的特征及其对银行业的影响

财政部于2006年初发布的新企业会计准则是对我国会计制度的重大改革，它将对我国银行业的财务状况及经营管理产生影响。就总体而言，新准则的实施有利于企业披露信息质量的提高。从银行业角度看，新准则使银行的资产负债分类方式发生改变，有助于银行进行风险管理；新准则引入公允价值，使银行金融工具的价值变化得以及时反映，同时增大了银行经营成果的波动；新准则理念先进，预示着管理模式的变迁，对银行业的经营理念提出新的挑战，要求银行管理者与从业人员加快转变经营理念，转变业务增长方式。新准则增加了银行进行资本管理的难度，并对从业人员的执业能力提出了更高要求。     

International trade and finance: Complementaries in the United Kingdom 1870-1913 and the United States 1920-1930

Do international trade and finance flow together? In a variety of theoretical models, trade and finance can be shown to have the potential to be substitutes or complements, so the matter must be resolved empirically. We study trade and financial flows from the United Kingdom from 1870 to 1913 and the United States in the interwar years. These were the two major capital exporters and key financial centers in each era. We find that trade and finance were robustly correlated for each case. We consider simultaneity issues. We also discuss evidence from the British Empire which casts doubt on the idea that trade is a punishment device in the event of a default.     

社会保障税:优化社会保障筹资模式的最佳选择

由于我国社会保险面临转轨成本、资金缺口和人口老龄化等三重压力,因此,通过依照职工工资总额征收养老保险金、失业保险金、医疗保险金、工伤保险金及生育保险金的方式所筹集的社会保障基金难以满足支出的需求。建议尽快由依靠企业统筹社会保障基金收费过渡到依靠税务机关征收社会保障税,以法律手段取代行政手段。这既是建立稳定的社会保障基金筹资机制、保证社会保障基金稳定来源的必需,也是适应社会主义市场经济发展需要、优化社会保障筹资模式的最佳选择。     

Derivative prices from interest rate models: results for Canada, Hong Kong, and United States

In this paper, we compute implied bond and contingent claim prices from the CKLS, Vasicek, CIR, and BS interest rate models using historical estimates for Canada, Hong Kong, and the United States. We find that default-free bond prices and contingent claim prices are sensitive to the assumed model used for these currencies, and that for Canada the CIR is the best, for Hong Kong the Vasicek and CIR models, and for the US the BS model.     

The Housing and Credit Bubbles in the United States and Europe: A Comparison

A house price boom occurred simultaneously in the United States and in a number of European countries from 2003 to 2007, accompanied in each case by an expansion in housing finance. This article considers the role of financial innovation along with incomplete markets in these cycles.     

美国保险人财务危机处置制度对我国的启示

本文探讨的主旨在于研究美国保险监管机构处置面临财务危机的保险人的制度体系以及对国内相关制度的启示。通过介绍分析美国保险监督官协会制定的示范法以及据此订立的爱荷华州相关的法律,对督导、接管、重整以及清算这四种处置保险人财务危机的程序制度进行了系统的分析,并对保险保障基金以及抵消这两个在清算程序中至关重要的问题进行了探讨。通过对美国这一制度的具体分析,为国内的比较研究和实践立法提供有益的参考。     

中国金融税制现状、税负测算及成因分析

伴随着我国改革开放的不断深化,金融业得以迅速发展,但同时面临着许多困难和挑战,其中金融税制已逐渐成为金融业纵深发展的重要瓶颈之一。本文在对我国金融税制现状分析的基础上,对金融税收负担进行了较为全面的测算,并深入分析了税负变化的不利因素,以寻找改革与完善我国金融税制的有效路径。