中国沥青、燃料油及润滑油市场月度分析

1．需求 （1）沥青 2009年5月份,国内大部分地区沥青需求低迷,市场交投平淡,各大炼厂出货主要靠合同支撑,现货成交较少。其中,华东和华南地区持续的阴雨天气阻碍工程开工,沥青现货需求低迷;北方地区由于前期各施工单位抓紧时间大量储货,库存整体处于高位水平,而终端需求并未大规模释放,因此本月贸易商购货量并不多。     

Taxation in the Tanzanian gold sector: Overview of impacts and possible solutions

This paper analyses the factors that reduce the gold sector's contribution to the Tanzanian government's revenue. Tanzania is among Africa's largest gold exporters. Yet ordinary Tanzanians have seen little benefit from this. This is partly because the government has enacted tax laws that are, as we shall see, overly favourable to multinational mining companies, and partly because of the same companies' business practices. Critics argue that the government fails to capture a substantial amount of state revenue as a result of low royalty rates, unpaid corporate taxes and tax evasion by major gold mine operators. This paper argues that the Tanzanian government should try to increase its share of revenues by taxation based on revenues, increasing its auditing skills and its involvement in mining, as well as by increasing the transparency of contracts and limiting the discretionary power of policy-makers in negotiating contracts.     

Transfer Pricing: Strategies,Practices, and Tax Minimization

Using a survey of tax executives from multinational corporations, we document that some firms set their transfer pricing strategy to minimize tax payments, but more firms focus on tax compliance. We estimate that a firm focusing on minimizing taxes has a GAAP effective tax rate that is 6.6 percentage points lower and generates about $43 million more in tax savings, on average, than a firm focusing on tax compliance. Available COMPUSTAT data on sample firms confirm our survey‐based inferences. We also find that transfer pricing‐related tax savings are greater when higher foreign income, tax haven use, and R&D activities are combined with a tax minimization strategy. Finally, compliance‐focused firms report lower FIN 48 tax reserves than tax‐minimizing firms, consistent with the former group using less uncertain transfer pricing arrangements. Collectively, our study provides direct evidence that multinational firms have differing internal priorities for transfer pricing, and that these differences are strongly related to the taxes reported by these firms.     

美国政府促进非常规天然气勘探开发的政策与经验

美国非常规天然气开发已有100多年的历史,但最近30多年是美国非常规天然气快速发展的时期。美国政府在取消价格管制、实行市场化机制的同时,还采取矿权费减免、税收减免、勘探开发技术研究和转让等鼓励非常规天然气勘探开发的政策和措施,并设立了非常规天然气研究项目,对致密气、煤层气和页岩气等非常规天然气资源的评价研究给予资助。这些政策和措施使得美国非常规天然气产量在2009年达到3307．8亿立方米,占当年全国天然气产量的54％;也使联邦和地方政府的税收增加了几十亿美元,使消费者因低气价获益1000亿美元;同时形成了一批非常规资源勘探开发新技术和新理论。美国政府促进非常规天然气开发的政策与经验对中国天然气工业的发展具有十分重要的参考和启示作用。     

The Effects of Competition from S Corporations on the Organizational Form Choice of Rival C Corporations

Subchapter C of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code levies an entity‐level tax on corporate profits, whereas Subchapter S allows corporations meeting specific criteria to elect out of this tax. Despite these differences, C and S corporations regularly compete for customers and capital. We examine whether and the extent to which competition from S corporations influences the future organizational form choice of rival C corporations and explore outcomes of this choice. Using data for 4,462 private U.S. commercial banks grouped by Metropolitan Statistical Area during 1997–2010, we find that greater competition from S corporation banks increases the likelihood that rival C corporation banks convert to Subchapter S status. We estimate that the aggregate first‐year tax savings from S conversion exceed $372 million. Consistent with these savings being used to maintain competitive parity with rivals, we find that converting banks increase their interest rates on customer deposits and advertising intensity. Our findings provide insight into whether competition from tax‐advantaged firms influences the organizational form choice of rival tax‐disadvantaged firms.     

伊朗新石油部长的政策主张及其潜在影响

2010年8月3日,卡西米被正式任命为伊朗新石油部长,并自动成为OPEC轮值主席。卡西米出任石油部长是国内政治权力博弈的结果,同时他的军队背景也使其获得军界和国内强硬政治力量的支持,并在油气行业具有很强的影响力。卡西米担任石油部长后,主张本国公司取代外国公司经营国内油气项目;优先开发与邻国共有的油气田;主张多方筹集资金发展本国油气工业。卡西米上任并不能改变伊朗受国际制裁的局面;外国石油公司在伊部分项目面临被收回的风险;中国石油公司在伊拓展工程技术服务也将面临挑战。但同时,中国可能成为伊朗在国际社会筹集资金的主要目标国,因此未来中伊双边贸易或将加强。中国石油公司可权衡利弊,把握时机,与伊加强在油气贸易领域的合作。     

The Economic Effects of Special Purpose Entities on Corporate Tax Avoidance

This study provides the first large-sample evidence on the economic tax effects of special purpose entities (SPEs). These increasingly common organizational structures facilitate corporate tax savings by enabling sponsor firms to increase tax-advantaged activities and/or enhance their tax efficiency (i.e., relative tax savings of a given activity). Using path analysis, we find that SPEs facilitate greater tax avoidance such that an economically large amount of cash tax savings from research and development (R&D), depreciable assets, net operating loss carryforwards, intangible assets, foreign operations, and tax havens occur in conjunction with SPE use. We estimate that SPEs help generate over $330 billion of incremental cash tax savings, or roughly 6 percent of total U.S. federal corporate income tax collections during the sample period. Interaction analyses reveal that SPEs enhance the tax efficiency of intangibles and R&D by 61.5 percent to 87.5 percent. Overall, these findings provide economic insight into complex organizational structures supporting corporate tax avoidance.     

Appropriability mechanisms for manufacturing and service firms: the contingencies of openness and knowledge intensity

Conventional wisdom argues that appropriating returns from innovation requires protection mechanisms. However, there will be limits to the effectiveness of formal and informal appropriability mechanisms for innovation performance. Their effectiveness will be contingent on the nature of the knowledge that firms are trying to protect and the openness of their innovation strategy (sharing knowledge while attempting to protect knowledge is known as the ‘paradox of openness’). Do these boundary conditions apply to both manufacturing and service firms equally though? Analyzing data from the UK Community Innovation Survey, this study provides evidence for a continuum – from discrete product manufacturing firms, whose products rely heavily on codified, explicit knowledge and for which formal methods are strongly associated with innovation performance, to knowledge-intensive service firms, which tend to rely more on complex tacit knowledge and for which innovation is linked to informal, not formal, appropriability. The findings show that the paradox of openness is a limited problem for service firms. The benefits of collaboration for innovation performance outweigh any reduction in the effectiveness of appropriability. For manufacturers, the benefits of collaboration disappear with high formal appropriability, and thus, discrete product manufacturers, contrary to conventional wisdom, may find it beneficial to reduce collaboration breadth and invest in informal appropriability mechanisms. Knowledge-intensive servitized manufacturers find formal methods effective but only with no or minimal collaboration.     

中国沥青、燃料油及润滑油市场月度分析

回顾 1.需求 (1)沥青 2009年2月份,在政府各种利好政策相继出台的刺激下,各地沥青冬储需求异常旺盛,沥青市场交投活跃,加之年后各地道路工程陆续开工,终端需求逐渐回暖,尤其是华南和华东地区需求量明显增加.2月份,我国沥青表观消费量约108.9万吨,环比增长17.3%,同比增长60.6%(见表1).