The impact of thin-capitalization rules on the capital structure of multinational firms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Buettner, Thiess; Overesch, Michael; Schreiber, Ulrich; Wamser, Georg
• 署名单位: University of Erlangen Nuremberg; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Goethe University Frankfurt; University of Mannheim; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.06.008
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 930-938
• 关键词: Corporate income tax; multinational firms; capital structure; Thin-capitalization rules; Firm-level data

摘要

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of limitations of the tax deductibility of interest expenses for multinational corporations, so-called thin-capitalization rules. The empirical investigation exploits a large micro-level panel dataset of multinational firms to analyze the effects of thin-capitalization rules on the capital structure of foreign subsidiaries located in OECD countries in the time period between 1996 and 2004. The findings indicate that thin-capitalization rules effectively reduce the incentive to use internal loans for tax planning but result in higher external debt. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.