[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/udc/wpaper/wp481.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Tax Paradox and Weak Tax Neutrality

Author

Listed:
  • Ramón E. López
  • Pablo Gutiérrez C.
  • Eugenio Figueroa
Abstract
We introduce the concept of weak tax neutrality which establishes that the relationship between the tax rate and the user cost of capital may be non-monotonic. We show that most existing corporate tax systems allow for weak neutrality. That is, given the tax allowances permitted by these systems, it is possible that neutrality may arise for at least one positive corporate tax rate. Moreover, we show the practical relevance of weak neutrality in realistic situations where there are several asset types and heterogeneous levels of firms’ debt ratios.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramón E. López & Pablo Gutiérrez C. & Eugenio Figueroa, 2019. "The Tax Paradox and Weak Tax Neutrality," Working Papers wp481, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp481
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.uchile.cl/uploads/publicacion/992501f153a04c25dfaf6099a26a2cdc54110053.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Devereux & Harold Freeman, 1991. "A general neutral profits tax," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Hassett, Kevin A. & Hubbard, R. Glenn, 2002. "Tax policy and business investment," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 20, pages 1293-1343, Elsevier.
    3. Fatica, Serena, 2018. "Business capital accumulation and the user cost: Is there a heterogeneity bias?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 15-34.
    4. Alexander Ljungqvist & Michael Smolyansky, 2014. "To Cut or Not to Cut? On the Impact of Corporate Taxes on Employment and Income," NBER Working Papers 20753, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. (IFS), Institute for Fiscal Studies & Mirrlees, James (ed.), 2011. "Tax By Design: The Mirrlees Review," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199553747.
    6. Norman Gemmell & Richard Kneller & Danny McGowan & Ismael Sanz & José F. Sanz‐Sanz, 2018. "Corporate Taxation and Productivity Catch‐Up: Evidence from European Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(2), pages 372-399, April.
    7. Boadway, Robin & Bruce, Neil, 1984. "A general proposition on the design of a neutral business tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 231-239, July.
    8. Abel, Andrew B & Eberly, Janice C, 1994. "A Unified Model of Investment under Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1369-1384, December.
    9. Mackie-Mason, Jeffrey K., 1990. "Some nonlinear tax effects on asset values and investment decisions under uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 301-327, August.
    10. Alexander Klemm & Stefan Parys, 2012. "Empirical evidence on the effects of tax incentives," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 393-423, June.
    11. Paul A. Samuelson, 1964. "Tax Deductibility of Economic Depreciation to Insure Invariant Valuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(6), pages 604-604.
    12. Tobin, James, 1969. "A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 15-29, February.
    13. Simeon Djankov & Tim Ganser & Caralee McLiesh & Rita Ramalho & Andrei Shleifer, 2010. "The Effect of Corporate Taxes on Investment and Entrepreneurship," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 31-64, July.
    14. Peter K. Clark, 1993. "Tax Incentives and Equipment Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(1), pages 317-347.
    15. Paul L. Baker, 2018. "An Analysis of the Corporate Income Tax Policy of Less Developed Countries," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(2), pages 400-427, April.
    16. Bustos, Alvaro & Engel, Eduardo M. R. A. & Galetovic, Alexander, 2004. "Could higher taxes increase the long-run demand for capital? Theory and evidence for Chile," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 675-697, April.
    17. Ruud Mooij & Michael Devereux, 2011. "An applied analysis of ACE and CBIT reforms in the EU," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(1), pages 93-120, February.
    18. Serena Fatica, 2017. "Measurement and Allocation of Capital Inputs With Taxes: A Sensitivity Analysis for OECD Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 1-29, March.
    19. Thomas Gries & Ulrich Prior & Caren Sureth, 2012. "A Tax Paradox for Investment Decisions under Uncertainty," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 14(3), pages 521-545, June.
    20. Sudipto Sarkar & Levon Goukasian, 2006. "The Effect of Tax Convexity on Corporate Investment Decisions and Tax Burdens," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 8(2), pages 293-320, May.
    21. S. Abbas & Alexander Klemm, 2013. "A partial race to the bottom: corporate tax developments in emerging and developing economies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(4), pages 596-617, August.
    22. Bonds, Stephen R. & Devereux, Michael P., 1995. "On the design of a neutral business tax under uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 57-71, September.
    23. Jack Mintz, 1995. "Corporation tax: a survey," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 23-68, November.
    24. Luis H. R. Alvarez & Vesa Kanniainen, 1997. "Valuation of Irreversible Entry Options under Uncertainty and Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series 144, CESifo.
    25. Bond, Stephen & Xing, Jing, 2015. "Corporate taxation and capital accumulation: Evidence from sectoral panel data for 14 OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 15-31.
    26. Diewert, W. E. & Wales, T. J., 1988. "A normalized quadratic semiflexible functional form," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 327-342, March.
    27. Tibor Hanappi, 2018. "Corporate Effective Tax Rates: Model Description and Results from 36 OECD and Non-OECD Countries," OECD Taxation Working Papers 38, OECD Publishing.
    28. A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), 2002. "Handbook of Public Economics," Handbook of Public Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    29. Ruf, Martin, 2012. "Broadening the tax base of neutral business taxes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 81-83.
    30. Rainer Niemann, 1999. "Neutral Taxation under Uncertainty - a Real Options Approach," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 56(1), pages 51-66, March.
    31. Saman Majd & Stewart C. Myers, 1985. "Valuing the Government's Tax Claim on Risky Corporate Assets," NBER Working Papers 1553, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    32. Luis H. R. Alvarez & Erkki Koskela, 2008. "Progressive Taxation, Tax Exemption, and Irreversible Investment under Uncertainty," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(1), pages 149-169, February.
    33. Eric Zwick & James Mahon, 2017. "Tax Policy and Heterogeneous Investment Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 217-248, January.
    34. A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), 2002. "Handbook of Public Economics," Handbook of Public Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    35. Eric Zwick, 2018. "The Costs of Corporate Tax Complexity," NBER Working Papers 24382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    36. Alvarez, Luis H. R. & Kanniainen, Vesa & Sodersten, Jan, 1998. "Tax policy uncertainty and corporate investment: A theory of tax-induced investment spurts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 17-48, July.
    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. Panteghini Paolo, 2001. "On Corporate Tax Asymmetries and Neutrality," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 269-286, August.
    2. Paolo M. Panteghini, 2005. "Asymmetric Taxation under Incremental and Sequential Investment," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 7(5), pages 761-779, December.
    3. Meißner, Fabian & Schneider, Georg & Sureth, Caren, 2013. "The impact of corporate taxes and flexibility on entrepreneurial decisions with moral hazard and simultaneous firm and personal level taxation," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 141, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    4. Ruud de Mooij & Michael P. Devereux, 2008. "Alternative Systems of Business Tax in Europe: An applied analysis of ACE and CBIT Reforms," Taxation Studies 0023, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    5. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2006. "Can Capital Income Taxes Survive? And Should They?," EPRU Working Paper Series 06-06, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    6. Vesa Kanniainen & Paolo M. Panteghini, 2013. "Tax Neutrality: Illusion or Reality? The Case of Entrepreneurship," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 69(2), pages 167-193, June.
    7. Ruud Mooij & Michael Devereux, 2011. "An applied analysis of ACE and CBIT reforms in the EU," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(1), pages 93-120, February.
    8. Schneider, Georg & Sureth, Caren, 2010. "The impact of profit taxation on capitalized investment with options to delay and divest," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 97, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    9. Koethenbuerger, Marko & Stimmelmayr, Michael, 2014. "Corporate deductibility provisions and managerial incentives," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 120-130.
    10. Caren Sureth, 2002. "Partially Irreversible Investment Decisions and Taxation under Uncertainty: A Real Option Approach," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 3(2), pages 185-221, May.
    11. Florian Chatagny & Marko Koethenbuerger & Michael Stimmelmayr, 2017. "Introducing an IP license box in Switzerland: quantifying the effects," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(6), pages 927-961, December.
    12. Pablo Gutierrez & Ramon E. Lopez & Eugenio Figueroa, 2014. "Local neutrality of Corporate Tax systems," Working Papers wp394, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    13. Hebous, Shafik & Ruf, Martin, 2017. "Evaluating the effects of ACE systems on multinational debt financing and investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 131-149.
    14. Paolo M. Panteghini, 2001. "Dual income taxation : the choice of the imputed rate of return," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 5-13, Spring.
    15. Wong, Kit Pong, 2009. "Progressive taxation, tax exemption, and corporate liquidation policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 295-299, March.
    16. Wong, Kit Pong, 2011. "Progressive taxation and the intensity and timing of investment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 100-108, January.
    17. Hjalmar Boehm & Michael Funke, 2000. "Optimal Investment Strategies under Demand and Tax Policy Uncertainty," CESifo Working Paper Series 311, CESifo.
    18. Wong, Kit Pong, 2011. "Progressive taxation and the intensity and timing of investment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 100-108.
    19. Bofinger, Peter & Schnabel, Isabel & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Wieland, Volker, 2015. "Zukunftsfähigkeit in den Mittelpunkt. Jahresgutachten 2015/16 [Focus on Future Viability. Annual Report 2015/16]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201516.
    20. Azevedo, Alcino & Pereira, Paulo J. & Rodrigues, Artur, 2021. "Optimal timing and capacity choice with taxes and subsidies under uncertainty," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    More about this item

    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:udc:wpaper:wp481. 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: Mohit Karnani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuclcl.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.