An optimal taxation approach is employed to discuss the interaction between factor and commodity taxes for a small open economy when profit-earning firms are mobile internationally. In this framework, a destination-based commodity tax is shown to be superior to an origin-based VAT from an...

Using simple benchmark models, this paper gives an introductory analysis of three separate policy issues that relate to the taxation of multinational firms: (i) the spread of tax measures that provide discriminatory tax relief to multinational firms; (ii) the switch from the current separate...

This paper analyzes transfer pricing incentives under a destination-based and an origin-based VAT system. While a switch to the origin-based VAT may moderate or reinforce the incentive for transfer pricing induced by income tax differentials, we show that in the case of the EU this switch tends...

We analyze a sequential game between two symmetric countries when firms can invest in a multinational structure that confers tax savings. Governments are able to commit to long-run tax discrimination policies before firms' decisions are made and before statutory capital tax rates are chosen...

This paper analyses the development of the ratio of corporate taxes to wage taxes using a simple political economy model with internationally mobile and immobile firms. Among other results, our model predicts that countries reduce their corporate tax rate, relative to the wage tax, either when...

The rise in foreign direct investment and the increasing activity of multinational firms expose national corporate tax bases to cross-country profit shifting, but also lead to rising profitability of the corporate sector. We incorporate these two effects of economic integration into a simple...

Thin capitalization rules have become an important element in the corporate tax systems of developed countries. This paper sets up a model where national and multinational firms choose tax-efficient financial structures and countries compete for multinational firms through statutory tax rates...