Tax Incentives for Small Businesses Exporting : A Capital Budgeting Decision Analysis

Exporting is important to the health of the U.S. economy. Prior research indicates that the export potential is substantial in the small business sector. Through analysis of a base case scenario, this study presents the incremental net present value of cash flow from exporting through two tax entities specifically designed to encourage small businesses to export--the small foreign sales corporation (SFSC) and the interest-charge domestic international sales corporation (ICD). Then, the separate variables constituting the base case are allowed to vary to examine their sensitivity. In contrast to some studies, the results indicate that the SFSC results in a higher net present value of cash flow than the ICD across a broad range of variables. However, as the forecasted sales level increases and the hurdle rate gets very large, the ICD can become the optimal business form for exporting