Small Corporations' Income Shifting through Choice of Ownership Structure - a Norwegian Case

We analyze how small business owners respond to the tax-minimizing incentives inherent in the Norwegian version of the dual income tax to shift income from the personal to the corporate tax base. The corporations in our sample seem to respond to tax incentives and change their ownership structure to qualify for reduction in overall tax payments. We document substantial cohort effects end suggest that postreform corporations were better able to form tax-reducing coalitions, compared with prereform corporations. It also appears that corporations who participate in this activity are more profitable and have more to gain from tax-minimizing income shifting.