Tax Co-ordination in Europe: Assessing the First Years of the EU-Savings Taxation Directive

This paper reviews the economic effects of the EU Savings Taxation Directive. The Directive aims at enabling taxation of foreign interest payments received by individuals in accordance with the rules of their State of residence. The data suggest that the Directive, which is based on automatic information exchange, has not led to major shifts in international savings. However, this result has to be interpreted with caution since the available data is scarce and not always conclusive.Savings Taxation, Withholding Tax, Information Exchange, European Union

Corporate Tax Policy, Foreign Firm Ownership and Thin Capitalization

This paper analyzes the implications of foreign firm ownership and international profit shifting through thin capitalization for corporate tax policy. We consider a model of interjurisdictional tax competition where the corporate tax serves as a backstop to the personal income tax, interest on debt is deductible from the corporate tax base and multinational firms may shift profit across countries through thin capitalization. We show that the problem of thin capitalization induces countries to reduce their corporate tax rates below the personal income tax rate and to broaden their tax bases. Moreover, foreign firm ownership leads to a reduction in corporate tax rates. We also show that there is scope for welfare enhancing tax coordination in our model. In the presence of both foreign firm ownership and thin capitalization, countries gain from a coordinated increase in corporate tax rates or from a coordinated broadening of the tax base.tax competition, income shifting

The 2008 Financial Crisis and Taxation Policy

The 2008 financial crisis is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. It has been characterised by a housing bubble in a context of rapid credit expansion, high risk-taking and exacerbated financial leverage, ending into deleveraging and credit crunch when the bubble burst. This paper discusses the interactions between tax policy and the financial crisis. In particular, it reviews the existing evidence on the links between taxes and many characteristics of the crisis. Finally, it examines some possible future tax options to prevent such crises.Taxation, financial crisis, banking crisis, fiscal incentives

METHOD OF MONITORING CHARGE CONDITION OF HEAT PUMP SYSTEM

A heat-pump circuit may include an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, a compressor adapted to circulate a working fluid between the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers, and an expansion device disposed between the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers. A monitor for the heat-pump system may include a return-air temperature sensor, a supply-air temperature sensor, and a processor. The return-air temperature sensor may be adapted to measure a first air temperature of air upstream of the indoor heat exchanger. The supply-air temperature sensor may be adapted to measure a second air temperature of air down stream of the indoor heat exchanger. The processor may be in communication with the return-air temperature sensor and the supply-air temperature sensor. The processor may be programmed to determine a working-fluid-charge condition of the heat-pump system based on the first and second air temperatures

Tax-Co-ordination in Europe: Assessing the First Years of the EU-Savings Taxation Directive

This paper reviews the economic effects of the EU Savings Taxation Directive. The Directive aims at enabling taxation of foreign interest payments received by individuals in accordance with the rules of their State of residence. The data suggest that the Directive, which is based on automatic information exchange, has not led to major shifts in international savings. However, this result has to be interpreted with caution since the available data is scarce and not always conclusive.savings taxation, withholding tax, information exchange, European Union

The 2008 Financial Crisis and Taxation Policy

The 2008 financial crisis is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. It has been characterised by a housing bubble in a context of rapid credit expansion, high risk-taking and exacerbated financial leverage, leading to deleveraging and credit crunch when the bubble burst. This paper discusses the interactions between tax policy and the financial crisis. In particular, it reviews the existing evidence on the links between taxes and many characteristics of the crisis. Finally, it examines some possible future tax options to prevent such crises.financial crisis, tax policy, taxation, fiscal stimulus, financial transaction tax, property tax

Corporate Tax Reform and Foreign Direct Investment in Germany – Evidence from Firm-Level Data

Does the reduction of the effective tax burden on corporations trigger foreign direct investment? We take the German tax reform of 2000 as a natural experiment in order to isolate the impact of corporate taxation on the investment of foreign-held affiliates in Germany. We do so by exploiting the very rich MiDi data base from the Deutsche Bundesbank. Although we deliberately choose an approach which is likely to underestimate the tax effects on investment we find significant evidence that the tax reduction had the intended effect of - ceteris paribus - fostering inward direct investment. We find an elasticity of inward foreign direct investment with respect to the effective marginal tax rate of -0.7. We repeat the analysis for different subgroups and find high degrees of heterogeneity. Our results do not allow to decide whether the model of discrete investment choices or the model of marginal adjustment of the capital stock performs better in explaining the investment data.corporate taxation, foreign direct investment

The Role of Housing Tax Provisions in the 2008 Financial Crisis

The 2008 financial crisis is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. It has been characterised by a housing bubble in a context of rapid credit expansion, high risk-taking and exacerbated financial leverage, ending into deleveraging and credit crunch when the bubble burst. This paper discusses the interactions between housing tax provisions and the financial crisis. In particular, it reviews the existing evidence on the links between capital gains taxation of houses, interest mortgage deductibility and characteristics of the crisis.financial crisis, tax policy, housing, interest deductibility, capital gains

Dissecting the Interaction Between the Rb/E2f and Myc Pathways in vivo

Cancer can be defined as unregulated cell growth. This uncontrolled proliferation often stems from the disruption of transcriptional pathways. Some cell cycle regulators have been well characterized, however the interaction between some important pathways have not been thoroughly studied in vivo. The relationship between the important tumor suppressor Retinoblastoma (Rb) and the E2F family has been studied extensively. At the same time, c-Myc is a transcriptional activator that has been shown to be critical for proper proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. While the Rb/E2F and c-Myc pathways are well defined individually, their interaction in vivo is unknown. In this study, we first demonstrate that deletion of either E2f1-3 or c-Myc are able to rescue an Rb deficient phenotype. Secondly, we show that combinatorial deletion of E2f1-3 and c-Myc reveal a subset of genes that are synergistically regulated by both E2f1-3 and c-Myc. These results suggest that the pathways of these transcription factors overlap more than originally thought, and further analysis of transcriptional affiliation will be paramount to understanding carcinogenesis.Pelotonia Undergraduate FellowshipA five-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Molecular Genetic

Effectiveness of Food-demos to Increase Nutrition Knowledge

This research investigated the effectiveness of a one-time food-demo at increasing the knowledge and improving the behavior of vegetable and diary consumption in the diets of college-aged females. Participation included a convenience sample of 26 college-aged females living in residence halls at a Bowling Green State University in Northwest Ohio. Testing was delivered before intervention as a baseline of knowledge and diet behavior. Post-testing was delivered immediately after intervention and evaluated any gain in knowledge from the baseline. One-month after intervention, post 2-testing was distributed evaluating retention of knowledge and behavioral change. Overall, participants experienced knowledge gain immediately after intervention and one-month after intervention compared to baseline knowledge. Knowledge was not fully retained from post-testing to one-month follow-up testing. No behavioral change was indicated. These results suggest that concise, interactive education methods can lead to a gain in knowledge, but additional intervention may be needed to improve retention of knowledge and to promote behavioral change