This paper analyzes the sources of heterogeneity in legal tax avoidance strategies across individuals. Three conditions are required for a taxpayer to participate in tax avoidance: incentive, access, and awareness. Using rich Swedish administrative panel data with a unique link between corporate...

This paper analyzes the sources of heterogeneity in legal tax avoidance strategies across individuals. Three conditions are required for a taxpayer to participate in tax avoidance: incentive, access, and awareness. Using rich Swedish administrative panel data with a unique link between corporate...

This paper analyzes whether a dividend tax cut for owner-managers of closely held corporations encourages income shifting, income generation, or both. We use rich Swedish administrative micro data from 2000 to 2011 comprising detailed firm- and individual-level information. We find robust...

We examine how creditor rights affect the trade-off between non-debt and debt tax shields. Using four bankruptcy reforms, a panel of private and public firms, and tax return data from Italy, we show that laws empowering creditors reduce tax avoidance and increase debt financing, consistent with...

Using a valuation framework, we show that two dimensions of tax avoidance, uncertainty and the level of expected future tax rates, are jointly related to firm value and need to be expressed as a ratio. We confirm the importance of a composite measure of tax avoidance adjusted for tax uncertainty...

Most corporate tax codes constrain capital investment because the cost of capital investment is usually not fully deductible from taxable income. We examine whether firms avoid taxes to loosen such tax code constraints on their investment. Exploiting increases in capital investment incentives...

We study tax compliance under decentralized versus centralized tax enforcement. Using a tax administration reform in Canada, we examine which organizational level of tax enforcement leads to higher compliance. Our results show that there is more tax avoidance under centralized tax enforcement....

We explore whether corporate tax enforcement can affect bank lending. Specifically, we hypothesize that tax enforcement efforts aimed at small and midsized enterprises (SME) can improve their information environments, which in turn could lead to increased bank commercial lending. Exploiting the...

We investigate the potential of path dependence in explaining cross-sectional variation and persistence in efficient corporate tax planning. Variation in corporate tax planning among firms is far from fully understood. We propose that corporate tax planning strategies are path dependent. This...