We study the optimal taxation of corporate and dividend income when entrepreneurs can use retained earnings to reduce their tax burden. We show that eliminating dividend taxes while increasing the corporate income tax (CIT) to keep investment unchanged raises total tax revenue. Our simulations...

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate income tax rates (CITR) and firm-level productivity growth using AMADEUS data of 304,410 observations from 79,842 European firms from 2006 to 2019. The results imply a robust non-linear relationship: higher CITRs are positively...

Does the preferential tax treatment of debt over equity cause banks to increase their leverage? We construct a novel dataset tracing the evolution of the debt tax shield for banks in advanced economies from 1870 to 2020. Exploiting variation from nearly all changes in banking-sector tax shields...

This paper develops a data-driven methodology for detecting potential profit shifting by multinational enterprises in South Africa. Drawing on detailed administrative tax and customs data, we construct a series of red-flag indicators based on firm-level profitability, intra-group transactions,...

Corporate tax reforms generate cross-border investment spillovers through multinational subsidiary networks and along global supply chains. Within multinational firms, production linkages can lead to negative crossborder investment spillovers following tax increases. Along global supply chains,...

This project reviews the revenue implications of the introduction of a global implementation of unitary taxation and formula apportionment. The combination of a various sources of firm-level data allows to learn more about the channels and the extent of the reallocation of tax revenues. The...

We provide firm-level evidence on expected tax burdens under the OECD's Pillar Two minimum tax using hand-collected financial statement disclosures from listed multinational groups headquartered in countries where Pillar Two has already taken effect. Our setting exploits a common reporting...

This study examined how a company's tax exposure, conceptualized as a capital structure decision factor, influences the financial performance of state-owned sugar manufacturing corporations in Western Kenya. Grounded in Modigliani and Miller's capital structure model and drawing on trade-off,...

In recent years, a growing number of countries have enacted tax rules that require multinational enterprises (MNEs) to document their intra-firm trade prices and show that they are set as in third-party trade. The objective of these rules is to limit opportunities for strategic trade mis-pricing...

Despite the large fiscal footprint of corporate tax incentives, limited causal evidence exists on their impact on economic outcomes. This paper helps fill this gap by exploiting the phasing out of a large income tax exemption scheme for export- oriented firms in Tunisia. Using data on the...

This note presents the results of the analysis of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporate Income Tax (CIT) compliance and policy gap estimates in Indonesia between 2016 and 2021. The study's objective is to quantify the magnitude of the tax gaps and to identify drivers behind the low efficiency of...

This Perspective discusses the fiscal and economic impacts of the global minimum tax; currently being implemented by many countries around the world. The global minimum tax is expected to raise tax revenues, reduce profit-shifting, and allow jurisdictions to strike a better balance between...

The World Bank Investment Climate Unit, in collaboration with the Global Fiscal Policy and Sustainable Growth Unit, developed a Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Incentives Database to address data gaps and meet emerging needs for more information on the prevalence and role of incentives. The Database...

The paper advances a framework to take stock of CIT incentives across two interrelated policy objectives: stimulating investment in green sectors and processes; and/or encouraging divestment from dirty sectors. It distinguishes three categories of CIT incentives related to the green agenda: (i)...

The effective corporate tax rate is a critical measure reflecting a nation's fiscal policy and its attractiveness to foreign investment. This study investigates the relationship between macroeconomic determinants and effective corporate tax rates, focusing on Slovakia's competitiveness within...

How do corporate tax systems shape the boundaries of the firm? This paper shows that nonlinear corporate income taxation can distort firms' organizational structures by inducing tax-motivated firm splitting. I use administrative data on corporations and their owners and exploit two reforms that...

In this paper we theoretically analyse the European Union's ongoing political impasse regarding the choice of a single method to allocate multinational enterprises' profits across countries and we find that this strategic situation resembles a coordination game with distributional consequences....

As corporate income tax rates have fallen across the world, other capital taxes become more important. This paper studies the choice between income taxation at the corporate and shareholder level. I develop a sufficient-statistics framework to determine optimal tax reforms. The main result is...

We use a natural experiment and administrative data to study the effect of corporate tax cuts on business activity. For identification, we exploit the abolition of municipal corporate income taxation in Sweden in 1985, which created variation in corporate tax changes faced by different...

This paper presents novel estimates of the incidence of corporate taxes by measuring the effect of local business taxes on the welfare of commercial landowners, residential landowners, firm owners, and workers. We use unique data on real estate prices in Germany covering over 32 million...

Although citizens value competitive markets and support small businesses, we observe substantial variation in market concentration. Why do politicians abstain from taking action to reduce concentration? We propose an often overlooked political benefit to concentrated markets: When concentration...

This study examines the real effects of earnings stripping rules introduced in the European Union in 2019, which tie interest deductibility to contemporaneous profitability. Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment created by the EU's harmonized implementation under the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive...

Tax expenditures are tax relief measures targeted at some socially desirable activities or specific groups of taxpayers. This paper reviews issues related to tax expenditures in the EU and presents some stylised facts related to tax expenditures in personal income taxation (PIT), value-added...

Effective policymakers must balance the demands of formulating a corporate tax system that raises revenue and spurs economic activity (e.g., investment) while promoting a "level playing field" across firms. Balancing these tradeoffs has likely caused tax systems to become more complex over time,...

We extend Trade-Off Theory (TOT) by assuming that EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), rather than EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes), follows a Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), and we thus consider the role of tax depreciation allowances (TDA) in...

This study examines the impact of vertical interlock on corporate tax avoidance in business groups using data on Chinese listed companies from 2003 to 2019. We find that vertical interlock has a negative impact on corporate tax avoidance. Our result is robust to alternative measures,...