How multinationals circumvent anti tax-avoidance regulations

The UK worldwide debt cap raised the tax bill for domestic multinational corporations, but not for foreign ones, writes Katarzyna A Bilick

Comparing UK Tax Returns of Foreign Multinationals to Matched Domestic Firms

In this paper, I use confidential UK corporate tax returns data to explore whether there are systematic differences in the amount of taxable profits that multinational and domestic companies report. I find that the ratio of taxable profits to total assets reported by foreign multinational subsidiaries is one-half that of comparable domestic standalones. The majority of the difference is attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of foreign multinational subsidiaries report zero taxable profits. I document how the estimated difference is related to profit shifting and show that using accounting data leads to much smaller estimates of the difference

Organizational capacity and profit shifting

This paper analyses the effect of a firm's organizational capacity on the reported profitability of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Better organizational practices improve productivity and the potential taxable profits of firms. However, higher adoption of these practices may also enable more efficient allocation of profits across tax jurisdictions, lowering actual taxable profits. We present new evidence that MNE subsidiaries with better such practices, when located in high-tax countries, report significantly lower profits and have a higher incidence of bunching around zero returns on assets. We show these results are driven by patterns consistent with profit-shifting behavior. Further, using an event study design, we find that firms with better practices are more responsive to corporate tax rate changes. Our results suggest organizational capacity, especially monitoring-related practices, enables firms to engage in shifting profits away from their high-tax subsidiaries

Labor Market Consequences of Antitax Avoidance Policies

In this paper, I analyze the local labor market consequences of multinational firms reallocating employees across their affiliates in response to antitax avoidance policies. I leverage the introduction of a worldwide debt cap in 2010 in the United Kingdom as a quasi-natural experiment that limited one of the forms of profit shifting—debt shifting—for a group of multinational corporations (MNCs). Multinationals affected by the reform reallocated their employees from the United Kingdom to foreign locations. This affected London-based service sector firms the most. I show that this led to a reduction in the number of jobs available in regions exposed to the reform in the United Kingdom. In foreign countries, the initial reallocation of labor across firms resulted in a much larger expansion of the affected local labor markets. These results suggest that a reallocation of labor across firms generates asymmetries in how negative and positive firm-level shocks are amplified through regional markets

Profit Shifting and Corruption

This paper introduces heterogeneous profit shifting costs induced by corrupt tax officials to the analysis of profit shifting of multinationals. Using a theoretically derived corruption weighted tax differential, we show that corruption increases profit shifting of European firms. We use our estimates to calculate the implied tax revenue elasticities for European countries and find that countries with otherwise similar tax rates face lower tax revenue elasticities when they are more corrupt. This means that corruption negatively affects the revenue gains that countries could have from increasing their tax rates

G20 Corporate tax ranking 2011

This report assesses the current competitiveness of the UK corporate tax system relative to other G20 countries. We measure competitiveness using two widely employed indicators: the effective average tax rate (EATR) and the effective marginal tax rate (EMTR). Theory and empirical evidence indicate that the EATR is relevant for the location of discrete investment projects, while the EMTR is relevant for the level of investment, given its location. Both the EATR and the EMTR depend on the statutory tax rate and the definition of the tax base; the EMTR depends more heavily on the tax base

Zagadnienie Ojczyzny w polskich katechizmach i podręcznikach do nauki religii dla dzieci i młodzieży w latach 1945–1957

In the article the theme of homeland in Polish catechisms and Religious Education textbooks for children and young people is discussed. The adopted periodization of catechetical publications encompasses the years from 1945 to 1957 and is marked by the end of the Second World War and 1957, the year of introducing new syllabus of Religious Education. The text consists of the introduction and five parts. In order to properly evaluate the content of catechetical publications, in the first part of the article, the author briefly characterizes the situation of the Catholic Church after the Second World War, political and social context as well as difficulties associated with publishing religious texts. Censorship of publications played a significant role in that period, especially in case of catechisms and Religious Education textbooks. The remaining parts of the article focus on the results of the analysis of catechetical publications which have been divided into three categories: catechisms for younger children, catechisms for older children and textbooks for young people (Religious Life textbook series by Zygmunt Baranowski). The sources have been analyzed relying on personal experience of texts from a private library of the author of the article. The article ends with a short conclusion which includes synthetic observations as well as bibliography which is divided into primary sources (catechisms and Religious Education textbooks) and secondary sources (monographs and academic articles).W artykule omówiono zagadnienie Ojczyzny w polskich katechizmach i podręcznikach do nauki religii dla dzieci i młodzieży. Przyjęta periodyzacja wykorzystanych publikacji katechetycznych obejmuje lata 1945–1957, wyznacza ją koniec II wojny światowej i 1957 rok związany z ogłoszeniem nowego, powojennego programu nauczania religii. Całość, poza wstępem, składa się z pięciu części. Aby właściwie ocenić treść publikacji katechetycznych, w pierwszej części autorka krótko scharakteryzowała sytuację Kościoła katolickiego po II wojnie światowej, kontekst polityczno-społeczny oraz związane z nim trudności na rynku wydawniczym, zwłaszcza religijnym. Niemałe znaczenie w omawianym okresie miała cenzura publikacji, która pozostawiła swoje piętno w katechizmach i podręcznikach do nauki religii. W kolejnych częściach opisano wyniki analizy publikacji katechetycznych, które podzielono na trzy kategorie: katechizmy dla młodszych dzieci, katechizmy dla starszych dzieci i podręczniki dla młodzieży, seria podręczników Życie religijne Zygmunta Baranowskiego. Materiał źródłowy analizowano z autopsji na podstawie egzemplarzy z prywatnej biblioteki autorki artykułu. Całość wieńczy krótkie zakończone zawierające syntetycznie ujęte wnioski oraz bibliografia, która została podzielona na źródła (katechizmy i podręczniki do nauki religii) oraz opracowania (monografie i artykuły naukowe)

Professional Advancement of RE Teachers in the Context of the Challenges of the Information Society

In the first years of political transformation in Poland starting in 1989, one of the crucial issues was the reform of education, including changes in the procedure of professional advancement for teachers. At that time, it was also important for the Catholic Church to restore Religious Education in schools, which returned to the state education system in the 1990–1991 school year. Since then, RE teachers have had the same rights and obligations as teachers of compulsory subjects and undergone the same professional advancement procedure. Twenty years have passed since the new procedure of career progression for teachers was introduced in Poland. Therefore the author of the article attempts to answer the following questions: To what extent does the procedure meet the challenges of the information society and in what direction should it evolve due to the rapid development of information and communication technology in the world

Long-Term Orientation and Tax Avoidance Regulations

In this paper, we explore the relationship between the culture of the country where a multinational corporation (MNC) is headquartered and the MNC\u27s stock market reaction to tax avoidance regulations. Specifically, we examine the different responses of MNCs following the implementation of the 2010 UK reform that restricted profit shifting for a specific group of firms. We find that, in countries with short-term-oriented cultures, MNCs affected by this reform experienced positive stock market responses relative to their unaffected counterparts. This is not found in long-term-oriented cultures. This difference in response can partly be explained by the differing perceptions of the role tax havens play in tax minimization practices between more long-term-oriented cultures and those oriented towards the short term. We provide evidence that investors from more future-oriented cultures may recognize the short-lived effectiveness of a regulation ex ante, and thus price the quasi-exogenous market shock differently than their more short-term-oriented counterparts