Mandatory Information Exchange, Cross-Border Income Shifting, and the Physical Flow of Tangible Goods

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chow, Travis; Maydew, Edward L.; She, Guoman
• 署名单位: University of Hong Kong; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina School of Medicine; National University of Singapore
• 刊物名称: ACCOUNTING REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4826; 1558-7967
• DOI: 10.2308/TAR-2024-0525
• 发表日期: 2026-07
• 页码: 169-201
• 关键词: income shifting; Tax planning; international trade; tangible goods; environment; multinational firms; tax havens; location; TRADE; incentives; INVESTMENT; CHOICE; LAW

摘要

We examine whether mandatory tax information exchange agreements between governments have real effects on firms' physical trade in tangible goods. We posit that some of the physical trade in tangible goods flowing through low-tax jurisdictions is intended to facilitate income shifting. As such, shocks to enforcement via mandatory information exchange agreements could cause firms to change the physical flow of goods. Using firm-level shipping container data, we find that adoption of bilateral tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) between the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions is associated with significant decreases in the volume of imports by U.S. firms from those jurisdictions. We also find reallocation effects: U.S. firms increase imports from jurisdictions in the same subregion as the treated jurisdiction, resulting in minimal overall change in total imports. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to document a connection among enforcement-related tax disclosure, income shifting, and physical trade flows.