Multinationals' Sales and Profit Shifting in Tax Havens

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Laffitte, Sebastien; Toubal, Farid
• 署名单位: Universite Paris Saclay; Universite PSL; Universite Paris-Dauphine; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD); Laboratoire dEconomie de Dauphine LEDa; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200203
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 371-396
• 关键词: fractional response variables; foreign direct-investment; FIRMS; TREATIES

摘要

We show that US multinationals record sales and the profits from these sales in tax havens while their goods and services are physically sold in other countries. We propose a framework illustrating the strategy of sales shifting. Our results reveal the importance of tax havens, which attract a disproportionate fraction of worldwide sales. Our quantifi-cation shows a large contribution of sales shifting to multinationals' profit shifting, which amounted to $80 billion in 2013. Our findings suggest that international corporate tax rules based on sales may not address profit shifting efficiently if the policy designs are unable to identify sales by destination. (JEL F23, H25, H26, H87, L25)