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The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 98 No. 4 2016

Multinational Firms and Tax Havens

Anna Gumpert1; James R. Hines2; Monika Schnitzer3,1

1 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München · 2 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor · 3 Center for Economic and Policy Research

Abstract

Multinational firms with operations in high-tax countries can benefit the most from reallocating taxable income to tax havens, though this is sufficiently difficult and costly that only 20.4% of German multinational firms have any tax haven affiliates. Among German manufacturing firms, a 1 percentage point higher foreign tax rate is associated with a 2.3% greater likelihood of owning a tax haven affiliate. This is consistent with tax avoidance incentives and contrasts with earlier evidence for U.S. firms. The relationship is less strong for firms in service industries, possibly reflecting the difficulty of reallocating taxable service income.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00591
Volume
98
Issue
4
Pages
713-727
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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