Troisième réforme de l’imposition des entreprises: les effets économiques de l’introduction d’une licence box

The pressure on Switzerland to reform the tax treatment of those companies with a special cantonal tax status has increased substantially over the last years. One element in the current discussion regarding the reform of the corporate tax system is the introduction of a licence box, in which income from patents, licences and trademarks, for instance, are taxed at a lower rate. In this paper, we present an overview of some of the results from a simulation study which deals with the effects of introducing a licence box at the level of the Swiss Cantons (see Chatagny, Köthenbürger and Stimmelmayr, 2014). The results reveal that the licence box, combined with a reduction in the cantonal profit tax rate, limits the outflow of the tax base of those companies that are initially subject to the special tax treatment. However, the reduction of the cantonal profit tax rate and the fact that ordinarily taxed companies also benefit from the introduction of the licence box imply overall tax revenues to decrease.