I present a rationale for a government to discriminate between debt and equity financing when taxing corporate income. For risk-averse entrepreneurs, equity generates more surplus than debt, because it provides financing and insurance. A government seeking to extract surplus from entrepreneurs...

This paper contributes to resolving the puzzle that in practice most countries use ad valorem (corporate income) taxation, while a large part of the tax competition literature views business taxes as unit (wealth) taxation. We point to the dual role corporate taxation plays in attracting mobile...

Recent empirical studies find that foreign direct investment (FDI) by a multinational firm is not associated with a reduction of the firm's domestic activities. As it is often argued, this finding may imply that a country should not tax the firm's foreign profit income since this reduces foreign...

Recent empirical studies find that foreign direct investment (FDI) by a multinational firm is not associated with a reduction of the firm’s domestic activities. As it is often argued, this finding may imply that a country should not tax the firm’s foreign profit income since this reduces...

The recent international agreement on a minimum effective corporate tax rate marks a profound change in global tax arrangements. The appropriate level of that minimum, however, has been, and remains, extremely contentious. This paper explores the strategic responses to a minimum tax, which the...

The European Commission is currently working on a legislative draft to harmonise corporate income tax provisions for multinational groups of companies throughout the European Union. For that purpose the European Commission has installed a working group with the mission to draft a set of rules...

This paper provides an assessment of the potential consequences for average corporate tax rates that would result from implementation of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) as proposed by the European Commission, and of possible methods for achieving an EU-wide loss-offset for...

International corporate tax competition continues to exert pressure on legislatures to reduce corporate tax rates as well as the rate imposed on shareholders. To combat this pressure, this commentary recommends eliminating the corporate income tax. Instead corporations should become tax...