Corporate Taxation under Weak Enforcement

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-71
Author(s):  
Pierre Bachas ◽  
Mauricio Soto

How should developing countries tax corporate income? We study this question in Costa Rica, where firms face higher average tax rates on profits when revenues marginally increase. We combine discontinuity and bunching designs to estimate the elasticity of taxable profit and separate it into revenue and cost elasticities. We find that firms faced with a higher tax rate slightly reduce revenues but considerably increase costs, thus producing a large elasticity of taxable profit of 3–5. In this context, the revenue-maximizing rate for a corporate tax on profit is below 25 percent, and we show that a tax policy that broadens the base while lowering the rate can almost double the tax revenue collected from these firms. (JEL D22, H25, H26, H32, K34, L25, O23)

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (12) ◽  
pp. 3827-3871
Author(s):  
M. Chatib Basri ◽  
Mayara Felix ◽  
Rema Hanna ◽  
Benjamin A. Olken

We compare two approaches to increasing tax revenue: tax administration and tax rates. We show that when Indonesia moved top regional firms into “medium taxpayer offices,” with high staff-to-taxpayer ratios, tax revenue more than doubled. Examining nonlinear changes to corporate income tax rates, we estimate an elasticity of taxable income of 0.579. Combining these estimates, improved tax administration is equivalent to raising top rates on all firms by 8 percentage points. On net, improved tax administration can have significant returns for developing countries. (JEL H25, H26, K34, O17)


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Devereux ◽  
Li Liu ◽  
Simon Loretz

We estimate the elasticity of corporate taxable income with respect to the statutory corporation tax rate using the population of UK corporation tax returns. We analyze bunching in the distribution of taxable income at kinks in the marginal rate schedule. We decompose this elasticity into an elasticity of total income with respect to the corporation tax rate, and an elasticity of the share of income taken as profit with respect to the difference between the personal and corporate tax rates. This implies a marginal deadweight cost at the £10,000 kink of around 29 percent of tax revenue. (JEL G32, H24, H25, L25)


Author(s):  
Fairus Halizam A. Hamzah ◽  
Nadiah Abd Hamid ◽  
Siti Noorhayati Mohamed Zawawi

This study aims to provide evidence on the trend in corporate tax revenue from the application of time-trend analysis of effective tax rate (ETR) amongst corporate taxpayers in Malaysia who claimed reinvestment allowance (RA) over a decade between 2007 and 2016. This study chose these observation periods because the Malaysian corporate STR has been found to have gradually reduced from 27 per cent to 24 per cent between 2007 to 2016, whereby these changes somehow impacted the tax revenue. Taxpayers who used RA for tax planning pay low taxes over time, determined through tax return data. Then, the study intended to examine the relationships between certain tax attributes, namely, company's profitability (ROA), the reinvestment allowance utilisation rate (RAUTI), type of corporate taxpayers (TPP), the book-tax gap (BTG) and how they associate to the trend in ETR. Reinvestment Allowance (RA) is renowned for being a corporate tax incentive in Malaysia to encourage investments in qualified projects through a tax deduction. An incentivised firm that pays low tax may not be engaging in fraudulent management, as generally assumed. However, it could have been due to tax avoidance strategies that can be observed through reduced or lowered effective tax rate (ETR) across ten years. Keywords: Effective Tax Rates, Tax Avoidance, Reinvestment Allowance, Tax Incentive, Taxation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aras ZIRGULIS ◽  
Tadas ŠARAPOVAS

We study the effect of corporate taxation on unemployment utilizing a dynamic panel covering 41 countries over 11 years. The purpose of this article is to investigate how changes in the corporate income tax affect unemployment. We employ system general method of moments (GMM) due to peculiarities of the data set and the endogeneity issues present in the research problem. We find that a rise in the effective average corporate tax rate significantly increases unemployment levels, which directly contradicts past findings of some seminal authors. In addition, the present research supports findings of past studies on capital tax elasticity that obtained similar insights using differing methodologies. This research lays the groundwork for future studies, which may take the same methodology and apply it to even larger international panels. This research implies that international tax competition is affecting unemployment, presumably through its effects on international capital investment. These results provide support for policy makers who may be wary of raising corporate tax rates in countries where capital is especially mobile because of the negative effects which may accumulate to the voting public in the form of unemployment.


Significance This framework laid out two pillars of reform. Pillar One would see large companies liable for tax in the end-market jurisdiction where their goods or services are used or consumed. Pillar Two would set a minimum tax rate of 15%. Impacts Ireland will probably support the reforms by October, and in return it may get some concessions over implementation or sectoral coverage. Reduced corporate tax revenue may result in tighter fiscal spending, which would play into the hands of the opposition Sinn Fein. The corporate tax proposals come at a particularly bad time for the Irish economy, which is already facing the consequences of Brexit.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-262
Author(s):  
Hairul Azlan Annuar ◽  
Khadijah Isa ◽  
Salihu Aramide Ibrahim ◽  
Sakiru Adsebola Solarin

Purpose The present study aims to investigate the impact of the reduction of the corporate tax rate on corporate tax revenue. The study adopts the theory of taxation by Ibn Khaldun, depicted as the Laffer curve. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses time series data for the period 1996 to 2014 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. Findings The paper finds that the corporate tax rate has a dual effect on corporate tax revenue over the study period. It shows an inverted U-shape relationship between the corporate tax rate and corporate tax revenue and reveals that the optimal tax rate is 25.5156 per cent. Inferentially, a positive relationship exists between the two variables prior to the optimal tax rate, and a negative relationship prevails afterwards. A further test of causality shows a long-run unidirectional causality between corporate tax rate and corporate tax revenue. Research limitations/implications First, it should be noted that the policy was not implemented in isolation. Several other tax incentives were given to corporate tax payers, and therefore, such incentives should be controlled for to have a more insightful evaluation of the policy. Second and most important, there is a need to investigate whether the increased cash flow available to firms as a result of the reduction in the corporate tax rate adds value to firms. It is also necessary to investigate whether firms’ stakeholders benefited from the increased cash flow or was there managerial diversion of firms’ resources. Practical implications The policy of gradual reduction of the corporate tax rate in Malaysia is suspected to have a positive impact on the productivity of Malaysian companies, which has contributed to an increase in corporate tax revenue. It also has a positive impact on the economic growth of the country. It means that the lower corporate tax rate has actually reduced the cost of doing business in the country. Originality/value The benefit of increased corporate tax revenue needs to be investigated empirically for insightful policy evaluation. In Malaysia, however, such investigation is close to non-existent to the best knowledge of the researchers. Thus, the present study aims at investigating the impact of the policy of gradual reduction of the corporate tax rate on corporate tax revenue over an 18-year period from 1996 to 2014.


1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Omer ◽  
Karen H. Molloy ◽  
David A. Ziebart

Given the recent emphasis on effective tax rates by policy makers and accounting researchers, this study investigates the relation between firm size and corporate tax burdens on a yearly and an industry basis. The analysis is conducted using five effective tax measures employed in previous studies in order to determine the degree to which inferences between size and tax burden are robust across these different effective tax measures. The results indicate that the relation is fairly robust across measures and, in instances in which the relation is not upheld by our analysis, sample composition explains differences in the observed relation between firm size and corporate tax burden.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerasimos T. Soldatos

AbstractThis short article underlines the efficiency considerations reflected by a Laffer curve. In a static context in which inflation is assumed away, the Laffer curve describes what would the response of tax revenue to tax rate change be under increasing inflation


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-148
Author(s):  
Juha Lindgren

Abstract One of the main trends in Finnish corporate taxation during the last ten years has been the lowering of the corporate tax rate. The decision to lower the corporate tax rate to 20% from the beginning of 2014 also changed the approach in reforming the corporate taxation as it was decided to stay on the grounds of a broad tax base and not to make loopholes in it with targeted exceptions. The Finnish corporate taxation contains also some provisions that act as incentives for investment and the establishment of companies. However, the focus has been lately on the rules with purpose to protect the national tax base. Therefore, article handles both the specific anti avoidance rules and the application of the general anti avoidance rule on the cross-border transactions. Some particular challenges and the exchange of information are also taken into account before the conclusion with some ideas and aspects on future reforms.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document