While tax havens are known as custodians and intermediaries of assets, this is the first paper to document that havens affect the ownership of assets on a large scale. We investigate cross-border, tax-haven mergers and acquisitions (M&A) using hand-collected data on tax residence laws and a...

We show that corporate taxation systems regarding foreign dividends and capital gains across 49 countries differ in many aspects, contradicting the requirements for capital ownership neutrality and indicating that ownership patterns are distorted. Consequently, a national tax policy maker may...

We investigate real investment, financial revenues and profits in formerly domestic firms once they enter a multinational entity (MNE) through an acquisition. We argue that following the acquisition, those targets are tax-optimized in a profit shifting context if they are acquired by MNEs with...

We show that corporate taxation systems regarding foreign dividends and capital gains across 49 countries differ in many aspects, contradicting the requirements for capital ownership neutrality and indicating that ownership patterns are distorted. Consequently, a national tax policy maker may...

We investigate real investment, financial revenues and profits in formerly domestic firms once they enter a multinational entity (MNE) through an acquisition. We argue that following the acquisition, those targets are tax-optimized in a profit shifting context if they are acquired by MNEs with...

In late 2008 Selectica's net operating loss poison pill was triggered by Trilogy/Versata. Litigation ensued in Delaware Court of Chancery over the propriety of the poison pill, which Selectica instituted to protect its $167 million of NOLs from the limitations of Internal Revene Code (I.R.C.)...

The recent economic downturn resulted in firms generating significant tax losses, which they risked losing if they experienced an ownership change. In response, a number of loss firms adopted poison pill plans. We document a significant negative market reaction to the announcement of 62 poison...

This paper examines the effect of targets' participation in tax shelters on takeover premiums in mergers and acquisitions. Using a novel dataset in which targets disclose that they have not participated in tax shelters, we find that targets that make this statement in their merger filings are...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 marked a significant change in U.S. domestic and international tax policy, altering incentives for U.S. firms to own foreign assets. We examine the initial response of U.S. firms’ foreign acquisition patterns to the TCJA’s key reform provisions. We...

We study the effect of corporate taxes on mergers using tax stimulus acts that reduce corporate taxes for S corporations. S corporations generally face corporate tax on gains arising from the sale of the S corporation, or of its assets, if it was previously a C corporation. We fail to find...