[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_1096.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corporate Tax Policy, Foreign Firm Ownership and Thin Capitalization

Author

Listed:
  • Clemens Fuest
  • Thomas Hemmelgarn
Abstract
This paper analyzes the implications of foreign firm ownership and international profit shifting through thin capitalization for corporate tax policy. We consider a model of interjurisdictional tax competition where the corporate tax serves as a backstop to the personal income tax, interest on debt is deductible from the corporate tax base and multinational firms may shift profit across countries through thin capitalization. We show that the problem of thin capitalization induces countries to reduce their corporate tax rates below the personal income tax rate and to broaden their tax bases. Moreover, foreign firm ownership leads to a reduction in corporate tax rates. We also show that there is scope for welfare enhancing tax coordination in our model. In the presence of both foreign firm ownership and thin capitalization, countries gain from a coordinated increase in corporate tax rates or from a coordinated broadening of the tax base.

Suggested Citation

  • Clemens Fuest & Thomas Hemmelgarn, 2003. "Corporate Tax Policy, Foreign Firm Ownership and Thin Capitalization," CESifo Working Paper Series 1096, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp1096.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haufler, Andreas & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2000. "Corporate Tax Systems and Cross Country Profit Shifting," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 306-325, April.
    2. Mintz, Jack & Smart, Michael, 2002. "Tax-exempt investors and the asset allocation puzzle," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 195-215, February.
    3. Huizinga, Harry & Nielsen, Soren Bo, 1997. "Capital income and profit taxation with foreign ownership of firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 149-165, February.
    4. Thomas A. Gresik, 2001. "The Taxing Task of Taxing Transnationals," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 800-838, September.
    5. Alfons Weichenrieder, 1996. "Anti-tax-avoidance provisions and the size of foreign direct investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(1), pages 67-81, January.
    6. Olsen, Trond E. & Osmundsen, Petter, 2001. "Strategic tax competition; implications of national ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 253-277, August.
    7. Mihir A. Desai & C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines, Jr., 2003. "A Multinational Perspective on Capital Structure Choice and Internal Capital Markets," NBER Working Papers 9715, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Nanda, Vikram, 1994. "Financing of multinational subsidiaries: Parent debt vs. external debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 259-281, August.
    9. Clemens Fuest & Bernd Huber, 2002. "Why Capital Income Taxes Survive in Open Economies: The Role of Multinational Firms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 9(5), pages 567-589, September.
    10. Huizinga, Harry & Nielsen, Soren Bo, 2002. "The coordination of capital income and profit taxation with cross-ownership of firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-26, January.
    11. Clemens Fuest & Bernd Huber & Jack Mintz, 2003. "Capital Mobility and Tax Competition: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 956, CESifo.
    12. Konrad, Kai A. & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 1999. "Fortress Building in Global Tax Competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 156-167, July.
    13. Richter, Wolfram F. & Wellisch, Dietmar, 1996. "The provision of local public goods and factors in the presence of firm and household mobility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 73-93, April.
    14. Mintz, Jack & Smart, Michael, 2004. "Income shifting, investment, and tax competition: theory and evidence from provincial taxation in Canada," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 1149-1168, June.
    15. Osmundsen, P. & Hagen, K. P. & Schjelderup, G., 1998. "Internationally mobile firms and tax policy1," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 97-113, June.
    16. Wildasin, David E. & Wilson, John Douglas, 1998. "Risky local tax bases: risk-pooling vs. rent-capture," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 229-247, June.
    17. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Coval, Joshua D., 1998. "Internal financing of multinational subsidiaries: Debt vs. equity1," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 87-106, March.
    18. Fuest, Clemens, 2005. "Economic integration and tax policy with endogenous foreign firm ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1823-1840, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dickescheid, Thomas, 2002. "Steuerwettbewerb und Direktinvestitionen," Beiträge zur Finanzwissenschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 1, volume 16, number urn:isbn:9783161477348, May.
    2. Huizinga, Harry & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2006. "Foreign ownership and corporate income taxation: An empirical evaluation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 1223-1244, July.
    3. Fuest, Clemens, 2005. "Economic integration and tax policy with endogenous foreign firm ownership," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1823-1840, September.
    4. Michael Keen & Kai A. Konrad, 2012. "International Tax Competition and Coordination," Working Papers international_tax_competi, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    5. Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2016. "Multinationals and Income Shifting by Debt," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 263-286, September.
    6. Johannes Becker & Clemens Fuest, 2011. "Optimal tax policy when firms are internationally mobile," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(5), pages 580-604, October.
    7. Kalamov, Zarko Y. & Runkel, Marco, 2016. "On the implications of introducing cross-border loss-offset in the European Union," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 78-89.
    8. Clemens Fuest & Bernd Huber & Jack Mintz, 2003. "Capital Mobility and Tax Competition: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 956, CESifo.
    9. Koethenbuerger, Marko & Stimmelmayr, Michael, 2016. "Taxing multinationals in the presence of internal capital markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 58-71.
    10. Koethenbuerger, Marko & Mardan, Mohammed & Stimmelmayr, Michael, 2019. "Profit shifting and investment effects: The implications of zero-taxable profits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 96-112.
    11. Olsen, Trond E. & Osmundsen, Petter, 2011. "Multinationals, tax competition and outside options," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1579-1588.
    12. Mihai Mutascu, 2014. "Influence of climate conditions on tax revenues," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 8(3), September.
    13. Goldbach, Stefan & Møen, Jarle & Schindler, Dirk & Schjelderup, Guttorm & Wamser, Georg, 2021. "The tax-efficient use of debt in multinational corporations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    14. Schjelderup, Guttorm & Ulltveit-Moe, Karen Helene & Kind, Hans Jarle, 2004. "Trade and Multinationals: The Effect of Economic Integration on Taxation and Tax Revenue," CEPR Discussion Papers 4312, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Johannes Becker, 2021. "Second-Best Source-Based Taxation of Multinational Firms," CESifo Working Paper Series 9329, CESifo.
    16. Mutsumi Matsumoto, 2019. "Production inefficiency, cross-ownership and regional tax-range coordination," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 371-388, December.
    17. Schjelderup, Guttorm & Ulltveit-Moe, Karen Helene & Kind, Hans Jarle, 2002. "Why Corporate Taxes May Rise: The Case of Trade Liberalization and Foreign Ownership," CEPR Discussion Papers 3383, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Krautheim, Sebastian & Schmidt-Eisenlohr, Tim, 2011. "Heterogeneous firms, 'profit shifting' FDI and international tax competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1-2), pages 122-133, February.
    19. Arnt Ove Hopland & Petro Lisowsky & Mohammed Mardan & Dirk Schindler, 2014. "Income Shifting under Losses," CESifo Working Paper Series 5130, CESifo.
    20. Haufler, Andreas & Runkel, Marco, 2012. "Firms' financial choices and thin capitalization rules under corporate tax competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1087-1103.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax competition; income shifting;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.