This paper investigates how banks use internal debt to shift profits to lower taxed affiliates. Using regulatory data on German multinational banks I find that banks employ the debt shifting channel more aggressively than non-banks do. This becomes even clearer when I correct for conduit...

This paper analyses if, and to which extent, firms anticipate future tax rate changes. The weight of future tax rates in firms' location decisions may explain differences in the sensitivity of firms' location decision to current tax rates. Firms with high relocation costs, for example, are more...

This paper examines the flexibility of multinational firms to use income-shifting strategies within a tax year to react to operating losses. First, we develop an analytical model that considers how affiliate losses can be adjusted by using the transfer prices of tangible and intangible assets,...

Corporate tax rates around the world have considerably decreased in the last decades. While tax competition among countries has been widely accepted as the driving force of this trend, it has remained unclear which countries compete with whom. This paper focuses on country size as a determinant...

Multinational companies can exploit the tax advantage of debt more aggressively than national companies. Besides utilizing the standard debt tax shield, multinationals can shift debt from affiliates in low-tax countries to affiliates in high-tax countries. We study the capital structure of...

We investigate the effect of international differences in corporate taxation on the realization of productivity gains in M&A deals. We argue that tax differentials distort the efficient allocation of productive factors following an M&A and thus mitigate the resulting productivity improvement....

A well-known strategy of tax avoidance by multinationals is to locate debt in subsidiaries in countries with a high tax rate. In case of M&As it is particularly advantageous to locate debt at the level of holdings. By using firm-level data provided by the German Central Bank, I show empirically...

The paper explores the effects of the switch to territorial taxation on outbound FDI. Rather than employing standard FDI statistics, the paper uses data which reports the location of the ultimate owner. We use a quasi-experimental approach that exploits the timing of reforms. In order to provide...

The increasing use of intellectual property as a means to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions or jurisdictions with so-called `patent boxes' is a major challenge for the corporate tax base of medium- and high-tax countries. Extending a standard tax competition model for capital-enhancing...

Using a rich panel data base for firms in Asian countries, we assess the effect of public sector corruption on corporate assets investment and tax payments. Our findings suggest that public sector corruption does not deter investment activities of national firms while asset investment of...