Tax Competition, the Distribution of MNE's Ownership and the Wage Formation Process

This paper shows how the distribution of the ownership of multinational companies and the labour market conditions, especially the wage formation process, influence the outcome of interjurisdictional tax competition and coordination. In particular, it sets forth that equilibrium corporate tax rate can be negative, being a subsidy to the mobile factor, financed through a tax on the immobile one, and that foreign ownership of companies enables a jurisdiction which behaves non-cooperatively to export its tax burden through a too large tax rate on profits on its territory.tax competition, tax coordination, multinational firm, foreign ownership, labour market, wage formation

Financing Bologna, the Internationally Mobile Students in European Higher Education

Despite the importance of the Bologna process for the mobility of students, and the further mobility of graduates, as well as for peace, growth and welfare in that area, nothing has been decided so far for the financing of internationally mobile students, so that the burden of that financing, usually public, is supported by the host country. Moreover in- and outflows of students show imbalances and such imbalances are expected to increase with mobility. Therefore, we first suggest and discuss an alternative system transferring the responsibility for financing higher education to the country of origin of the students (except for those from developing countries). Origin country finances students from its territory through a two-part portable voucher: one part is dedicated to the financing of the true cost of studies, the other part intends to support student’s life and might be designed in such a way that some social goals are reached. Those vouchers can be used anywhere in a defined international area provided it is in the designed field of studies and in a school whose quality has been recognized by the issuing country. Some actual systems at work in the world, which prefigure aspects of the proposal, are presented in appendix. Second, we show that, when coupled with a compensation of the origin country in case of international career of the graduate, the system proposed in this paper might be equivalent to a centralized efficient design.Bologna process, higher education, mobility, federalism, subsidiarity, European Union

Combining Dutch Presumptive Capital Income Tax and US Qualified Intermediaries to Set Forth a New System of International Savings Taxation

Beyond the traditional debates over information exchange vs flat taxation at source, legislative advances have produced interesting innovations and suggestions concerning how to tax international savings. We examine some of these advances, which we then use to set forth and investigate a proposal for European and international savings taxation. That proposition combines the outcome of a recent Dutch reform and lessons from the US qualified intermediaries mechanism. We show that such a system exhibits the same desirable properties as exchange of information, but potentially at reduced compliance cost, and is sustainable within a repeated game framework.European Union, international taxation, savings income

Reforming the Taxation of Multijurisdictional Enterprises in Europe, “Coopetition” in a Bottom-up Federation

This paper investigates replacing separate taxation by consolidation and formulary apportionment in a Bottom-up Federation, when a multijurisdictional firm is mobile in various respects. The reform is decided cooperatively by all the jurisdictions or by some of them, while tax rates remain within the competence of each jurisdiction. The paper sets forth the conditions for the reform to be social welfare enhancing, while not increasing tax competition. Among them, the formula should emphasize criteria that the Multijurisdictional Enterprise cannot easily manipulate and the consolidating area should protect its capacity to levy taxes by adopting a crediting system, possibly extended to accrued capital gains, vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Policy conclusions are suggested accordingly.taxation of multinational enterprises, consolidation and formulary apportionment, fiscal federalism

Cross-Border Loss Offset and Formulary Apportionment: How do they affect multijurisdictional firm investment spending and interjurisdictional tax competition ?

Motivated by the EU Commission‘s suggested company tax reforms, this paper investigates how cross-border loss offset and formulary apportionment of a consolidated tax base affect the investment and transfer pricing behaviour of a multijurisdictional firm, and how they affect the behaviour of governments potentially engaged in tax competition. The paper shows that cross-border loss offset mitigates both the reactions of a multijurisdictional firm to tax changes and the amount of tax competition engaged in by governments. However, formulary apportionment (with a consolidated tax base) boosts the sensitivity of firms to tax changes and increases the scope for interjurisdictional tax competition as well. For governments, formulary apportionment operates like a risk-sharing or partial equalisation mechanism.cross border loss offset, multinational firms, tax competition

Interjurisdictional Competition for Higher Education and Firms

In this paper we consider two regions competing for the larger part of the investment by a mobile firm whose decision is based on the quality of human capital in each region. This in turn depends on the initial skill level and the amount of higher education in the region, with a possible spillover to the other region. Therefore each region, through subsidies, tries to attract a larger part of the academic community. Moreover a central government or agency helps the poorer region by providing it with an extra budgetary allocation. The game is nested in a series of settings which are compared, especially from the point of view of their redistributive efficiency. From a policy point of view, the paper, in line with the subsidiarity principle, first provides an argument for allocating a significant amount of the competence in matters of human capital formation, to the central authorities. It also set forth difficulties which can arise from centralizing such an amount of competence and pleas for clear rules governing the federation, especially ruling out discretionary and opportunistic behaviors of public authorities. Finally, it shows the importance of the central government being correctly informed, including being allowed to gather information by itself.higher education, interjurisdictional competition, fiscal federalism, public infrastructure

Finance, uncertainty and investment: assessing the gains and losses of a generalized non linear structural approach using Belgian panel data

Using panel data for 2,329 Belgian firms observed between 1985 and 1999, this paper aims at getting a better understanding of Belgian firms' investment behavior. Two main and interrelated topics are investigated: the link between financial structure and investment decision, on the one hand, the effect of uncertainty on the level of investment, on the other hand. Such research sets forth the effect of some key variables, both in terms of level and volatility. The study is conducted within a structural approach but reduced form equations are also estimated. A generalised dynamic effect is investigated by introducing adjustment costs related through time. From that study, it clearly appears that small firms and high debt level firms are more sensitive to interest rate and cash flow. However, no role for investment price volatility is observed.Investment, debt constraint, panel data, GMM

Corporate Taxation and the Impact of Governance, Political and Economic Factors

In this paper we first use two international data sets to investigate how governance, political and economic factors influence corporate tax rates. We show that institutional and political factors matter: good governance reduces the tax rate; a parliamentary system, especially a plurality election system, and religious or nationalist executives too, push tax rates upward. Traditional variables also matter: economic openness has a negative effect on tax rates although market size has a positive one. Though it is not robust, interaction among neighbors also plays a role. Then we turn to theory and extend a standard model of tax competition to provide a channel for the elements set forth so far to influence tax rates formation; nested in the economic theory of lobbying that exercise provides our empirical investigation with theoretical foundations.institutions and taxation, tax competition, lobbying

Tax Interactions among Belgian Municipalities: Does Language Matter?

This paper tests the existence of strategic interactions among municipalities using a panel of Belgian local tax rates from 1985 to 2004. A special emphasis is put on the role of the language spoken in the various municipalities. Our results first confirm previous findings for Belgium suggesting that municipalities interact with each other over the two main local tax rates, the local surcharge on the (labour) income tax rate and the local surcharge on the property tax. Using tools of spatial econometrics and an original methodology for specifying weights matrices, we find out that municipalities are sensitive to tax rates set by their close neighbours only. We also reject the hypothesis that the language does not matter: in the within model and for the local income tax rate, the intensity of interactions is shown to be lower between municipalities speaking different languages than between municipalities speaking the same language. That observation is particularly relevant for today Belgium and might be viewed as a contribution to the ongoing debate on the regionalisation or partial decentralization of some taxes.tax interactions, panel data, spatial econometrics, local tax rates, tax competition, yardstick competition

L’imposition des revenus de l’investissement en Europe, une hétérogénéité coûteuse

Taxation of capital income on the European Union territory is characterised by the autonomy of parcelled jurisdictions on one hand, and by the integration of capital market on the other hand. Such a situation prepares the way for an interjurisdictional competition. Such competition is costly in terms of social welfare, due to the involved loss of tax revenue and the induced changes in the distribution of public finances' charge and in the allocation of governments' expenditures. In this article we first describe that situation; then we propose an analysis based on standard public finance theory, and, finally we discuss some avenues to abandon that costly heterogeneity. L’imposition des revenus du capital en Europe est caractérisée par l’autonomie de juridictions parcellisées d’une part, l’intégration du marché du capital d’autre part. Cette situation ouvre la voie à une concurrence entre juridictions coûteuse en termes de bien-être, tant du fait des pertes de recettes fiscales qu’elle implique, que des modifications qu’elle induit dans la distribution de la charge des dépenses publiques et l’allocation des dépenses des États. Dans cet article nous commençons par décrire cette situation, ensuite nous en proposons une analyse, lecture selon la grille du discours économique sur les finances publiques, enfin nous discutons quelques pistes pour sortir de cette hétérogénéité coûteuse.