Cross-Jurisdictional Income Shifting by U.S. Multinationals: Evidence from International Bond Offerings

We examine whether tax incentives influence where U.S. multinationals locate their interest deductions worldwide. Our sample includes international bond offerings by U.S. multinationals during 1987–1997 denominated in the currencies of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, or the United Kingdom. Our results suggest that U.S. multinationals' debt location decisions take into account the effect of jurisdiction-specific tax-loss carryforwards and binding foreign tax credit limitations on the value of debt tax shields. Our results are also consistent with U.S. multinationals locating interest deductions in different tax jurisdictions as a mechanism to achieve tax-motivated income shifting.     

Using Financial Accounting Data to Examine the Effect of Foreign Operations Located in Tax Havens and Other Countries on U.S. Multinational Firms' Tax Rates

This paper investigates the effect tax havens and other foreign jurisdictions have on the income tax rates of multinational firms based in the United States. We develop a new regression methodology using financial accounting data to estimate the average worldwide, federal, and foreign tax rates on worldwide, federal, and foreign pretax book income for a large sample of U.S. firms with and without tax haven operations. We find that on average U.S. firms that disclosed material operations in at least one tax haven country have a worldwide tax burden on worldwide income that is approximately 1.5 percentage points lower than firms without operations in at least one tax haven country. Our results also show that U.S. firms face a 4.4% current federal tax rate on foreign income whether or not they have tax haven operations. Finally, we find that U.S. firms with operations in some tax haven countries have higher federal tax rates on foreign income than other firms. This result suggests that in some cases, tax haven operations may increase U.S. tax collections at the expense of foreign country tax collections.     

Are U.S. Multinational Corporations Becoming More Aggressive Income Shifters?

This paper examines income shifting of U.S. multinational companies over the past two decades. Domestic and foreign policy makers are increasingly concerned with the effect of income shifting on dwindling tax revenues, however, extant research on income shifting by U.S. multinational enterprises is mixed. We address the disconnect between the academic literature and the policy maker's perceptions by examining the extent of multijurisdictional income shifting by U.S. multinational companies. We directly address conflicting results in extant literature and show that using either multiperiod proxies or instrumental variables overcomes weaknesses of annual proxies in this setting. Our tests show that U.S. companies have become more active at shifting income out of the United States as the regulatory costs of shifting have changed. Holding tax rate differences between U.S. and foreign jurisdictions constant, our empirical estimates suggest that our sample of 380 corporations with low average foreign tax rates collectively shifts approximately $10 billion of additional income out of the United States annually during 2005–2009 relative to 1998–2002 due to varying regulatory costs of shifting.     

Tax Reform and Employment in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent modifications of tax systems between 1985 and 1992 within major parts of the European Union contributed to changes in the labour market. The principal countries under investigation are Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, and the method of investigation is the numerical simulation of a multi-country general equilibrium model. Changes in VAT rates and in the personal income tax schedule are investigated. We conclude that a non-trivial part of the labour market changes may be due to reactions of the market to changes in these tax rates.     

Real Effects of Accounting Rules: Evidence from Multinational Firms’ Investment Location and Profit Repatriation Decisions

We analyze survey responses from nearly 600 tax executives to better understand corporate decisions about real investment location and profit repatriation. Our evidence indicates that avoiding financial accounting income tax expense is as important as avoiding cash income taxes when corporations decide where to locate operations and whether to repatriate foreign earnings. This result is important in light of the recent research about whether financial accounting affects investment and in light of the decades of research on foreign investment that examines the role of cash income taxes but heretofore has not investigated the importance of financial reporting effects. Our analysis suggests that financial reporting is an important factor to be considered in the policy debates focused on bringing investment to the United States.     

Reinsurance and corporate taxation in the United Kingdom life insurance industry

There are two main tax-related arguments regarding the use of reinsurance – the income volatility reduction and the income level enhancement arguments. The income volatility reduction argument contends that firms facing convex tax schedules have incentives to hedge in order to reduce the volatility of their annual taxable income and thereby lower expected tax liabilities [Smith, C.W., Stulz, R.M., 1985. Optimal hedging policies. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 19, 127–140]. The income level enhancement argument, advanced by Adiel [Adiel, R., 1996. Reinsurance and the management of regulatory ratios and taxes in the property–casualty insurance industry. Journal of Accounting and Economics 22, 207–240], is more specific to hedging via reinsurance. This perspective holds that reinsurance enhances current reported earnings via the receipt of reinsurance commissions and so increases tax liabilities. Consequently, insurance firms with high marginal tax rates should use less reinsurance than those with low marginal tax rates if tax matters. Prior studies using data on financial derivatives have produced mixed results on the validity of the first argument, while Adiel (1996) finds the second argument insignificant in his study of the use of reinsurance by a sample of United States (US) property–liability insurance firms. This study tests the two tax-related arguments using 1992–2001 data for a sample of United Kingdom (UK) life insurance firms. We find that UK life insurers with low before-planning marginal tax rates tend to use more reinsurance; in contrast, tax convexity is found to have no significant impact on the purchase of reinsurance and so the volatility-reduction argument is not supported.     

The fleeting nature of permanent reinvestment: Accounting for the undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries

Over the last decade, an increasing percentage of the profits reported by U.S. corporations were earned by their foreign subsidiaries and retained outside the United States resulting in the deferral of income taxes. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 provided a temporary federal tax incentive to remit such earnings, which resulted in the repatriation of $140 billion by the 30 firms comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average. An analysis of the financial reporting disclosures made by these firms reveals that a tax expense was not fully recognized on a substantial portion of the earnings until repatriation because of an exception for foreign reinvestments deemed to be essentially permanent in duration. The implications of the currently acceptable accounting for undistributed foreign earnings are discussed as well as recommendations to improve the relevancy and reliability of the disclosures required for this exception to comprehensive recognition of deferred taxes.     

论税收国际化趋势下我国的涉外税制

税收国际化是世界经济国际化发展的必然结果。加入世界贸易组织后,我国涉外税收体系中的关税、所得税和增值税等也经历了国际化的发展历程。我国涉外税收制度的改革与完善涵盖诸如加快增值税转型步伐、统一内外资企业所得税、调整与完善涉外税收优惠制度、加强国际税收合作等各方面。涉外税制的改革与完善将促进我国外向型经济的进一步发展,从而有助于我国在经济全球化的进程中获取最大的经济利益。     

Corporate domicile and average effective tax rates: The cases of Canada,Japan, the United Kingdom,and the United States

We use financial statement information to estimate three alterantive average effective tax rates for firms domiciled in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the period 1982 to 1991. While many of the firms we examine operate worldwide, we use the termdomicile to refer to the legal residence or site of incorporation of the parent company. Our objective is to determine themarginal impact of a company's domicile on its worldwide tax burden, with controls for industry and year. We find both among domestic-only companies and among multinational companies the domiciles are consistently ranked in descending order by average effective tax rates as Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. In comparing domestic-only companies and multinationals domiciled in the same jurisdiction, only U.S. multinationals consistently face a greater tax burden than their domestic counterparts.     

居民企业境外所得税收抵免的计算

当居民企业取得境外所得时,通常已经在所得来源地按照当地的相关法律缴纳过所得税。如何按照我国税法规定正确计算可抵免的境外所得税额是每个有涉外业务的居民企业面临的难题。本文介绍了居民企业境外所得税收抵免相关项目的计算,并以案例的方式进一步加以分析。     

Taxing multinationals in a world with portfolio flows and R&D: Is capital export neutrality obsolete?

This paper examines recent claims that capital export neutrality no longer serves as an effective principle for the taxation of income from foreign direct investment, due to the large and growing role played by portfolio capital in financing investment and to the recognition that R&D is an important determinant of international trade and investment. In our evaluation of these claims, we find capital export neutrality appears robust. Because both domestic and foreign activities may be financed with portfolio capital, and they both produce goods that compete in the world economy, there is no compelling reason to grant a lower tax to foreign income alone. Regarding the promotion of R&D or the entry of new competitors, cutting the tax on foreign income may be no more effective than cutting the tax on domestic income. A second focus of the paper is to calculate what the residual U.S. tax rate on active foreign income actually is. Based on 1990 data this rate is negative if foreign income is defined appropriately.     

Double taxation and tax deduction: A comparison

This paper examines the impact on capital flows and economic welfare of alternative domestic income tax policies toward foreign income tax payments, in a setting of international tax competition. In particular, we compare a system of full deductibility from taxable income with one that provides no allowance for foreign taxes. It is found that the walfare of the capital exporting country is always greater without deductibility than with it. Contrary to intuition, moreover, equilibrium capital flows and world income are also greater without deductibility. These findings extend the results of a recent contribution by Bond and Samuelson who compared tax deductibility with tax credits. The results underscore the importance of the general equilibrium approach for the proper evaluation of important tax policy alternatives.     

关于加强涉外税收征管的研究和思考

目前,我国涉外税收征管中存在许多问题,表现在对违章处理不严、税收稽查面过窄、境外所得基本失控、漏征漏管户数多等,造成这些问题存在的根本原因是内外资两套企业所得税法并存、执法与引资对立的观念作祟和税务机关本身存在的一些问题。为此,我们必须大力贯彻科学发展观,正确对待外资,提高税务干部素质,加强国、地税之间的沟通和协作,借鉴国外征管经验,加强国际税收协调,全面改进涉外税收征管。     

One-Way Treaty with the World: The U.S. Withholding Tax and the Netherlands Antilles

This paper chronicles the experiences of the U.S. withholding tax on interest income. In 1984, the U.S. repealed its 30 percent withholding tax on interest income paid to foreign persons or corporations. While the tax raised little revenue, it had imposed substantial implicit costs on U.S. corporate borrowers. Since, prior to repeal, domestically issued bonds were subject either to withholding or strict information requirements, many U.S. multinationals raised funds through foreign finance subsidiaries, primarily in the Netherlands Antilles, to avoid the tax. Although the withholding tax rate was effectively reduced to zero in the U.S., this paper demonstrates that interest flows were highly sensitive to their after-tax cost.     

Capital Mobility and Source-Based Taxation of Capital Income in Small Open Economies

This paper examines the taxation of capital income in a small open economy that faces a highly elastic supply of internationally mobile capital and increasing tax competition. The analysis considers a wide variety of additional factors that affect the determination of capital income taxation policy, including the desire to tax economic rents earned by foreign and domestic firms, the desire to take advantage of any treasury transfer effects, the role played by transfer pricing and other financial accounting manipulations by foreign multinationals, the need for a backstop to the personal income tax and various political concerns. The paper evaluates several potential income and consumption-based tax reforms in this context. JEL Code: H21, H25, H87     

Why Capital Income Taxes Survive in Open Economies: The Role of Multinational Firms

This paper discusses the role of multinational firms and double taxation treaties for corporate income taxation in open economies. We show that it is optimal for a small open economy to levy positive corporate income taxes if multinational firms are taxed according to the full taxation after deduction system or the foreign tax credit system. Positive corporate taxes also occur in the asymmetric case where some countries apply the exemption system and others apply the tax credit system. If all countries apply the exemption system, the optimal corporate income tax is zero. We also show that, under tax competition, corporate income taxes are not necessarily too low from the perspective of the economy as a whole. While the undertaxation result is confirmed for the case of the exemption system, tax rates may also be inefficiently high if the deduction or the credit systems are applied.     

企业所得税制改革的几点思考

在统一内外资企业所得税的基础上建立规范的法人所得税制度是我国企业所得税制改革的必然趋势.统一规范法人所得税税基,在确定计税成本时应充分体现纳税人的费用补偿原则,并适当降低所得税税率,清理整顿税收优惠政策,为各种所有制形式的企业创造公平纳税环境,规范国家与企业的分配关系,简化税制.     

发达国家境外所得征税制度的发展趋势

发达国家境外所得征税制度的发展表现出的趋势,对我国境外所得征税制度的改革和完善具有十分重要的意义。借鉴发达国家的经验,我国应逐步推动属人税制向属地税制的转化,将境外所得分为积极所得和消极所得,对积极所得实行属地税制,对消极所得实行全球税制。     

Currency Denomination of Intercompany Debt and Multinational Taxes

For multinational companies (MNCs) with foreign subsidiaries, the currency denomination of intercompany debt can have important effects on both taxes and financial statements. This paper analyzes the choice between an intercompany loan denominated in the home currency and one denominated in the subsidiary's functional currency. Using U.S. rules for financial accounting and taxes, the author demonstrates the expected impact of the loan's currency denomination on the expected level and variability of an MNCs overall taxes in the case where it has excess foreign tax credits.
The author's analysis shows that the foreign currency loan denomination leads to lower expected tax if the foreign withholding tax rate on interest is higher than the parent's home income tax rate. At the same time, the parent currency denomination leads to lower expected taxes if the parent's home income tax rate is higher than the foreign withholding tax rate on interest. Moreover, if an MNCs excess foreign tax credits are attributable to the subsidiary, the foreign currency loan denomination leads to lower variability in overall taxes. But in cases where the excess foreign tax credits arise from other foreign operations, the parent currency denomination leads to lower variability of overall tax.