Recently, there have been various proposals in Germany to exempt interest income of individuals from progressive income taxation, and to levy a flat source tax, instead. The isolated introduction of a flat tax on interest income would have a significant effect on all investment and financing...

While corporate income taxation is a major issue in the debate over international finance, economic theory has no clear stance on who bears its burden. On balance, economists seem still more prone to accept that taxing profits does not affect corporations’ outcomes. This paper makes three...

The paper analyses the relationship between corporate taxes and exports at firm level. We use an integrated dataset that combines, for the period 2004-2006, survey data(Indagine sulle Imprese Manifatturiere) and company accounts for the manufacturing sector to estimate a Probit and a Tobit...

We study whether the corporate tax system provides incentives for risky firm investment. We first model the effects of corporate tax rates and tax loss offset rules on firm risk-taking. Testing the theoretical predictions, we find that firm risk-taking is positively related to the length of tax...

The current debate in corporate taxation is focussing on leveling the tax playing field within the European Union in order to allow companies incorporated in different countries to face the same competitive conditions. However, various elements of corporate tax rules may discriminate against...

This paper reviews the rationales and facts about corporate tax coordination in Europe. Although statutory tax rates have dramatically declined, revenues collected from corporate taxation are fairly stable and there is so far no evidence of a race-to-the-bottom. The ambiguous results from...

While corporate taxation is a major issue in the debate over international finance, economic theory has no clear stance on who bears its burden. On balance, economists seem still more prone to accept that taxing profits does not affect corporations' outcomes. This paper makes three cases for...

Intangible assets are one major source of profit shifting opportunities due to a highly intransparent transfer pricing process. Our paper argues that multinational enterprises (MNEs) optimize their profit shifting strategy by locating shifting–relevant intangible property at affiliates with a...

This paper reviews the recent theoretical literature that analyses the European Union's policy to eliminate preferential corporate tax regimes and the proposal to introduce a consolidated EU tax base with formula apportionment for the taxation of multinational firms. Since neither proposal...

We provide indirect empirical evidence of profit shifting behavior by multinational enterprises. This issue is analyzed in an econometric panel study for the years 1995 to 2005 and additionally in a cross-section for 2004 using a large micro database of European subsidiaries of multinationals...