Law Commons^™

Tax Competition And E-Commerce, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

In the last four years, there has been increasing concern by developed countries about the potential erosion of the corporate income tax base by "harmful tax competition" (in the European Union since 1997, in the OECD since 1998). However, the data on tax competition available to date present a mixed and somewhat puzzling picture. On the one hand, there is considerable evidence that effective corporate income tax rates in many countries have been declining, and that the worldwide effective tax rates on multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been going down as well. On the other hand, macroeconomic data from developed countries …

The Uneasy Marriage Of Export Incentives And The Income Tax, Mihir A. Desai, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

This paper investigates the economic effect of tax incentives for American exports. These incentives include a partial tax exemption for export profits (available by routing exports through foreign sales corporations) and the allocation of some export profits to foreign-source income for purposes of U.S. taxation. The analysis highlights three important aspects of these policies. First, official figures appear to understate dramatically the tax expenditures associated with some U.S. export incentives. Correctly measured, total export benefits provided through the income tax are equivalent to a 1-percent ad valorem subsidy. Second, the 1984 imposition of more rigorous requirements for obtaining export subsidies …

Globalization And Tax Competition: Implications For Developing Countries, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

This article analyses the effects of tax competition on developing countries. Since the 1980s, globalization and greater capital mobility have led many developing countries to adopt the policy of competing with one another to attract capital investment. One of the main forms taken by this competition has been the granting of tax holidays and other tax reductions to investing multinationals. This paper reviews the normative arguments for and against this type of tax competition, from a global perspective. It then examines these arguments in depth from the point of view of developing countries. The conclusion in general is that, since …

Taxing International Income: Inadequate Principles, Outdated Concepts, And Unsatisfactory Policies, Michael J. Graetz

Faculty Scholarship

It is a pleasure to be here today to deliver the first David R. Tillinghast Lecture of the 21st century, a lecture honoring a man who has done much to shape' and stimulate our thinking about the international tax world of the 20th.

Our nation's system for taxing international income today is largely a creature of the period 1918-1928; a time when the income tax was itself in childhood. From the inception of the income tax (1913 for individuals, 1909 for corporations) until 1918, foreign taxes were deducted like any other business expense. In 1918, the foreign tax credit (FTC) …

Treating Tax Issues Through Trade Regimes (Symposium: International Tax Policy In The New Millennium), Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

Professor Paul R. McDaniel has performed an extremely valuable service in clarifying the relationship between trade and tax law. In particular, he has done so by pointing out that, to a large extent, the two spheres do not overlap, much less clash in their objectives. This makes sense because, fundamentally, the goal of trade law is to facilitate trade, while the goal of tax law is to raise revenue. Thus, for example, an ideal tariff under trade law is set at zero, but an ideal tax under tax law is set at some positive rate. It therefore should not be …

Globalization And Tax Competition: Implications For Developing Countries, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The current age of globalization can be distinguished from the previous one (from 1870 to 1914) by the much higher mobility of capital than labor (in the previous age, before immigration restrictions, labor was at least as mobile as capital). This increased mobility has been the result of technological changes (the ability to move funds electronically), and the relaxation of exchange controls. The mobility of capital has led to tax competition, in which sovereign countries lower their tax rates on income earned by foreigners within their borders in order to attract both portfolio and direct investment. Tax competition, in turn, …