Special tax regimes and the choice of organizational form: Evidence from the European Tonnage Taxes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Elschner, Christina
• 署名单位: European University Viadrina Frankfurt Oder
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.10.005
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 206-216
• 关键词: Special tax regimes; Tax incentives; organizational form; Tonnage tax

摘要

Tax systems often discriminate among the various organizational forms of doing business and may therefore affect the choice of organizational form. This paper studies how special tax regimes shape the organizational form choice. Although the full effects depend on the way that firm-level special tax regimes are designed, special regimes generally tend to favor pass-through firms over non-pass-through firms. The tonnage tax, a tax incentive for international shipping firms available in many countries worldwide, is examined to understand these effects. Employing European firm- and country-level data, the impact of the tonnage tax on organizational form choice is studied empirically. The results are consistent with the theoretical model. Shipping firms are less likely to incorporate if the tonnage tax is also available for firms that have adopted pass-through organizational forms. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.