International Transfer Pricing and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Linked Trade-Tax Statistics in the United Kingdom

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liu, Li; Schmidt-Eisenlohr, Tim; Guo, Dongxian
• 署名单位: International Monetary Fund; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors; University of London; University College London
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00871
• 发表日期: 2020-10
• 页码: 766-778
• 关键词: multinational firms; havens; size

摘要

This paper employs unique data on export transactions and corporate tax returns of UK multinational firms and finds that firms manipulate their transfer prices to shift profits to lower-taxed destinations. It shows that the 2009 tax reform in the United Kingdom, which changed the taxation of corporate profits from a worldwide to a territorial system, led to a substantial increase in transfer mispricing. It also provides evidence for a trade creation effect of transfer mispricing and estimates substantial transfer mispricing in non-tax-haven countries with low- to medium-level corporate tax rates, and in R&D intensive firms.