The effects of business taxation on economic and social welfare: new insights from tax return data
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Said Business School
Abstract
Despite attempting to reduce a very large budget deficit by cutting public expenditure and raising other taxes, the UK government intends to cut the main rate of corporation tax - levied on corporate profit - from 28% to 21% over the life of this Parliament. It is doing so as part of its aim to "create the most competitive corporate tax regime in the G20" (Cabinet Office, 2010, p10). The government believes that the corporation tax has an important impact on economic activity. At the same time, there has been a public outcry over multinational companies that are alleged to have avoided paying UK corporation tax.
This research proposes to estimate the scale of the effects of taxes on business behaviour, including avoidance, and also the consequent costs to society of the distortions to behaviour induced by taxes. The majority of the work will focus on corporation tax, but we will also analyse personal taxes on the profits of unincorporated businesses, and VAT.
A key feature of the research will be the use of confidential tax return data, recently made available by HMRC in a secure Datalab. The availability of these data provides an unprecedented opportunity for major breakthroughs in our understanding of the effects of taxes on key aspects of business behaviour. In collaboration with HMRC, we have already matched data from the population of corporation tax returns over a 10 year period with data from published financial accounts for the same companies. We will also match the tax return data for unincorporated businesses, and VAT returns for all registered businesses. The information in the resulting matched dataset will be at the frontier of what is available anywhere in the world for empirical research on the effects of business taxation.
The proposed research will generate important new insights into the effects of business taxation on economic and social welfare. We will focus on four specific areas of business behaviour: investment, source of finance, choice of legal form (primarily whether to incorporate or not), and tax avoidance. We will also analyse the responsiveness of taxable income to the tax rate; this reflects all behavioural responses, and can be used to estimate the overall costs to society of distortions to business behaviour.
We will use statistical techniques to exploit two forms of variation in UK business taxes. First, we will exploit discontinuities in marginal or average tax rates at several kink points in tax schedules, including the asymmetric treatment of profits and losses. Second, we will exploit the many important reforms that have taken place in each of the taxes considered over the last decade.
Thanks in part to previous ESRC investments, the research team at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation is in an outstanding position to conduct innovative research exploiting these data resources. The PI directed the pilot project of the HMRC Datalab which pioneered the use of anonymised corporation tax return data in empirical research on UK companies, and other members of the research team now have experience of working with these data.
Ultimately, the results of this research should be informative in the design of business taxes, though aspects of the results should also be useful in setting the forms of administration of each tax. The results should therefore be useful to HM Treasury and HMRC, and also to their counterparts around the world.
Recently the general public has been more engaged with business tax than ever before, mainly through extensive press coverage of alleged tax avoidance. We aim to use our research to broaden the public debate on the nature and design of taxes on business.
This research proposes to estimate the scale of the effects of taxes on business behaviour, including avoidance, and also the consequent costs to society of the distortions to behaviour induced by taxes. The majority of the work will focus on corporation tax, but we will also analyse personal taxes on the profits of unincorporated businesses, and VAT.
A key feature of the research will be the use of confidential tax return data, recently made available by HMRC in a secure Datalab. The availability of these data provides an unprecedented opportunity for major breakthroughs in our understanding of the effects of taxes on key aspects of business behaviour. In collaboration with HMRC, we have already matched data from the population of corporation tax returns over a 10 year period with data from published financial accounts for the same companies. We will also match the tax return data for unincorporated businesses, and VAT returns for all registered businesses. The information in the resulting matched dataset will be at the frontier of what is available anywhere in the world for empirical research on the effects of business taxation.
The proposed research will generate important new insights into the effects of business taxation on economic and social welfare. We will focus on four specific areas of business behaviour: investment, source of finance, choice of legal form (primarily whether to incorporate or not), and tax avoidance. We will also analyse the responsiveness of taxable income to the tax rate; this reflects all behavioural responses, and can be used to estimate the overall costs to society of distortions to business behaviour.
We will use statistical techniques to exploit two forms of variation in UK business taxes. First, we will exploit discontinuities in marginal or average tax rates at several kink points in tax schedules, including the asymmetric treatment of profits and losses. Second, we will exploit the many important reforms that have taken place in each of the taxes considered over the last decade.
Thanks in part to previous ESRC investments, the research team at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation is in an outstanding position to conduct innovative research exploiting these data resources. The PI directed the pilot project of the HMRC Datalab which pioneered the use of anonymised corporation tax return data in empirical research on UK companies, and other members of the research team now have experience of working with these data.
Ultimately, the results of this research should be informative in the design of business taxes, though aspects of the results should also be useful in setting the forms of administration of each tax. The results should therefore be useful to HM Treasury and HMRC, and also to their counterparts around the world.
Recently the general public has been more engaged with business tax than ever before, mainly through extensive press coverage of alleged tax avoidance. We aim to use our research to broaden the public debate on the nature and design of taxes on business.
Planned Impact
We aim to contribute to understanding of the costs to society of taxes on business. Ultimately, the results of our research should be used to inform policy regarding such taxes. We do not at this stage set out any policy prescriptions that might arise from the research. However, our ultimate aim is to inform policy - whether that involves changes in the use of different forms of taxation, or reforms to the structure of particular taxes, for example, - and should therefore benefit the whole of society.
More immediately, the research should be beneficial to those engaged in business taxes, either from the perspective of government or business.
Every country has an arm of government responsible either for determining tax policy, or for administering a tax. Within the UK, this is HM Treasury and HMRC respectively. We have close formal and informal links with both departments, and much of the work involved in this research will take place in the HMRC Datalab. Both departments have recently been active in debating the structure of business taxation. The Treasury has set the goal of the UK having the most competitive corporation tax in the G20, and is in the process of reducing the rate to 21%. The HMRC has been closely involved in a national debate over the alleged tax avoidance of multinational companies.
Our research should inform the work of both departments. For example, one outcome of our research should be to identify the relative importance of different elements of the tax system. What makes the most competitive tax system? The tax rate, allowances for capital expenditure, generous relief for the costs of finance, or other factors? We aim to shed light on these issues, which should in turn permit a tighter focus on the factors that lead to competitiveness.
We also plan to investigate the extent of avoidance. One factor, for example, is whether non-UK companies are able to shift profits out of the UK more easily than UK companies, which may mean that they can create a competitive advantage over domestic companies. Our research on this should also be useful HMRC, since it may help HMRC to focus its activities more precisely on areas of concern.
Our research should also inform the work of international organisations involved in international tax policy design, such as the European Commission, the OECD and the IMF. We have close links with these bodies, each of which plays a distinct role in international aspects of taxation. For example, the European Commission advocates a form of harmonisation of corporation tax within the EU; the value of such harmonisation is open to question, and depends on the responsiveness of business behaviour to incentives created by taxes. Our research should provide evidence on this.
Of course, business taxes are also directly important for business. This research will be undertaken within the Centre for Business Taxation, which has close links with business, and receives some funding from business. To the extent that business changes its behaviour (for example, its investment, or location) in response to taxes, then that represents a cost to business as well as to society as a whole. Providing evidence that may lead to reducing such distortions will therefore benefit business directly.
Broadly, then our research will contribute ultimately to global economic performance and the economic competitiveness of the UK. It will address and inform the effectiveness and public services and policy.
More immediately, the research should be beneficial to those engaged in business taxes, either from the perspective of government or business.
Every country has an arm of government responsible either for determining tax policy, or for administering a tax. Within the UK, this is HM Treasury and HMRC respectively. We have close formal and informal links with both departments, and much of the work involved in this research will take place in the HMRC Datalab. Both departments have recently been active in debating the structure of business taxation. The Treasury has set the goal of the UK having the most competitive corporation tax in the G20, and is in the process of reducing the rate to 21%. The HMRC has been closely involved in a national debate over the alleged tax avoidance of multinational companies.
Our research should inform the work of both departments. For example, one outcome of our research should be to identify the relative importance of different elements of the tax system. What makes the most competitive tax system? The tax rate, allowances for capital expenditure, generous relief for the costs of finance, or other factors? We aim to shed light on these issues, which should in turn permit a tighter focus on the factors that lead to competitiveness.
We also plan to investigate the extent of avoidance. One factor, for example, is whether non-UK companies are able to shift profits out of the UK more easily than UK companies, which may mean that they can create a competitive advantage over domestic companies. Our research on this should also be useful HMRC, since it may help HMRC to focus its activities more precisely on areas of concern.
Our research should also inform the work of international organisations involved in international tax policy design, such as the European Commission, the OECD and the IMF. We have close links with these bodies, each of which plays a distinct role in international aspects of taxation. For example, the European Commission advocates a form of harmonisation of corporation tax within the EU; the value of such harmonisation is open to question, and depends on the responsiveness of business behaviour to incentives created by taxes. Our research should provide evidence on this.
Of course, business taxes are also directly important for business. This research will be undertaken within the Centre for Business Taxation, which has close links with business, and receives some funding from business. To the extent that business changes its behaviour (for example, its investment, or location) in response to taxes, then that represents a cost to business as well as to society as a whole. Providing evidence that may lead to reducing such distortions will therefore benefit business directly.
Broadly, then our research will contribute ultimately to global economic performance and the economic competitiveness of the UK. It will address and inform the effectiveness and public services and policy.
Organisations
Publications
Bilicka K
(2019)
Comparing UK Tax Returns of Foreign Multinationals to Matched Domestic Firms
in American Economic Review
Bond S
(2016)
R&D and productivity: evidence from large UK establishments with substantial R&D activities
in Economics of Innovation and New Technology
Devereux M
(2018)
Corporate tax incentives and capital structure: New evidence from UK firm-level tax returns
in Journal of Banking & Finance
Devereux, M P
(2016)
Stimulating investment through incorporation
Guceri I
(2017)
Will the real R&D employees please stand up? Effects of tax breaks on firm-level outcomes
in International Tax and Public Finance
Guceri I
(2019)
Effectiveness of Fiscal Incentives for R&D: Quasi-experimental Evidence
in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Habu, K
(2017)
How much tax do companies pay in the UK?
Liu L
(2020)
International Transfer Pricing and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Linked Trade-Tax Statistics in the United Kingdom
in The Review of Economics and Statistics
Liu L
(2021)
VAT Notches, Voluntary Registration, and Bunching: Theory and U.K. Evidence
in The Review of Economics and Statistics
| Description | The aim of this research project was to use modern techniques of policy evaluation in exploiting newly-available, confidential tax return data available in the HMRC Datalab to investigate the impact of taxation on four specific aspects of business behaviour: investment, the source of finance, legal form and tax avoidance. The research has produced 11 academic papers on these four topics, and one further paper on the related topic of the elasticity of taxable income for business. Some research highlights are: • The generosity of tax depreciation allowances plays a significant role in firms' investment decisions. For example, for medium-size firms, the introduction of a 40% first year allowance in 2004 was associated with an 11% increase in investment. Tax incentives for research and development spending also have had large effects on such spending. • Small and newly-incorporated businesses face significant constraints in raising external finance for investment in both plant and machinery and research and development, although these effects do not appear to be significant for more established and medium-sized businesses. • Taxes also have significant effects on other aspects of business behaviour. For example: the corporation tax advantage to debt finance has a significant impact on the choice of funding by UK businesses; lower effective taxation of companies has a significant impact on the decisions of businesses whether to choose incorporated form; and the choice of whether to register for VAT depends on business characteristics, including whether the business primarily sells to consumers. • Two separate approaches found widespread evidence of profit shifting by multinational companies. Medium-sized subsidiaries of foreign multinationals declare a rate of profit approximately 50% lower than that of comparable domestic companies. Larger subsidiaries declare even lower rates of profit. Also there is evidence that transfer prices used for within-firm firm trade are significantly influenced by tax rates in different jurisdictions in which multinationals operate. Ultimately the goal of the research was to provide information to help inform business tax policy. These empirical findings are very relevant for policy. Related research in the Centre for Business Taxation has investigated options for business tax reform in domestic and international settings. The empirical results of the research reported here suggest strongly that reforms should seek to (a) avoid as far as possible tax distortions to investment and financial behaviour; (b) avoid discriminating between different types of firm; and (c) to radically reform the ways in which profit is allocated amongst countries for tax purposes. In terns of research methodology, this project highlighted the very significant advantage for empirical work in using detailed administrative data, in this case on the population of UK companies. Several elements of the research were able to contrast results with what would have been obtained from alternative data sources, mainly from financial accounts. They found significant differences (mostly much smaller effects of taxation) due to measurement error in data, and lack of precision in the possible evaluation techniques available. Our results therefore provide strong support for the continuation and expansion of the HRMC Datalab, and similar administrative data. |
| Exploitation Route | Our research findings are relevant for tax policy in the UK and elsewhere; and in recent years there has been a substantial international debate about the reform of business taxation. We have communicated our research in detail - in public conferences and seminars and in private meetings - with officials from HMRC and HM Treasury, and continue to do so; we have also done so with officials from the key international organisations relevant for business tax, in particular, the OECD, the European Commission and the IMF. We have also communicated strongly - again both in public conferences and in private meetings - with others with an interest in business taxation, in particular tax professionals from business and professional firms. We aim to make the results of research well known in the more general tax community. We have presented our research at numerous academic seminars and conferences around the world. The research is at the forefront of academic empirical evaluation of tax policy, especially in the field of business taxation. We believe that it will prove influential in setting standards for future research in this field, using comparable data in different settings and different countries. We believe that our research is relevant for all sectors of the economy. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Pharmaceu |
| URL | http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/tax |
| Description | This research analysed the impact of corporation tax and VAT on business behaviour in the UK, using confidential tax return data. The bulk of the work related to the behaviour of small businesses, although some also analysed subsidiaries of large multinational businesses. Given the confidentiality of the data, this work was done in the full knowledge of, and support of, HMRC. All of the individual research projects were discussed with, and the results presented to, HMRC officials in formal and informal settings. This culminated in a one-day conference jointly organised by the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation (CBT) and HMRC in March 2017, at which several of the research projects were presented to a wide audience. The specific impact of such research is often hard to trace with any precision, but does contribute to understanding of various elements of business taxation, especially within the UK government - especially, HMRC, HM Treasury and the Office of Tax Simplification. To date, there is a clear emerging impact of three elements of the research. 1. Value Added Tax. Ben Lockwood and Li Liu studied VAT return data, combined with corporation tax return and accounting data from the FAME database to study the effect of the VAT threshold on firm behaviour. In particular, in CBT Working Paper 15/06, "VAT Notches" - with a revised version being published in the Review of Economics and Statistics - they develop a conceptual framework that allows simultaneously for (i) bunching at the VAT registration threshold, and (ii) voluntary registration by some firms below the threshold. The framework predicts that higher intermediate input shares, lower product-market competition and a lower share of business to consumer sales (B2C) lead to voluntary registration. The predictions are exactly the opposite for bunching. They find empirical support for the model's predictions. They also find suggestive evidence that bunching is due to sales underreporting, rather than real output responses. In a more recent paper, they study the effects of the effects of the threshold on small firm growth, finding that growth slows down before the threshold and then accelerates afterward. In May of 2017, Ben Lockwood met with officials from the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to describe the research, and subsequently followed this up informally. This research was prominently cited in the final report of the OTS on the VAT threshold, "Value Added Tax: Routes to Simplification", published November 2017. In the Autumn Budget 2018, the Chancellor announced that that he would consult on whether the design of the VAT threshold could better incentivise growth. As part of this, HM Treasury has launched a call for evidence on the VAT registration threshold, and in March 2018 Ben Lockwood was invited to submit further evidence. 2. Simplification of Corporation Tax. Part of the contribution of the research was to merge - for each UK company in each year - data from tax returns with accounting data from the FAME database. In general, the measures of profit from the two sources are different form each other, for a variety of measurement reasons. This distinction has proven to be important for understanding the impact of taxation. But it is also important in identifying the likely impact of simplifying the corporation tax system - for small companies in particular - to make taxable profit more closely based on accounting profit. During 2016 and 2017, Michael Devereux and Katarzyna Habu (Bilikca) met several times with officials from the Office for Tax Simplification to discuss this issue. Drawing on the larger research project, Devereux and Habu prepared an analysis for the OTS (with the approval of HMRC) on the scale of the differences between the two measures of profit. This work informed content and recommendations of the OTS publication "Simplification of the Corporation Tax Computation", published in July 2017. 3. International Tax. There has been substantial reform to international aspects of corporation tax over the last three years, since the publication of OCD reports on "Base Erosion and Profit Shifting". Michael Devereux been active in these debates, and specifically one reform proposal seriously considered in the United States in 2017 was based on CBT research. One element of this research was undertaken by Katarzyna Habu as part of this ESRC project, and resulted in two CBT working papers: "How aggressive are foreign multinational companies in reducing their corporation tax liability?" WP17/13 and "How much tax do companies pay in the UK?" WP17/14; a revised version was recently published in the American Economic review. These papers provided new evidence on the extent to which UK subsidiaries of foreign multinationals paid UK corporation tax. This research was presented by Katarzyna Habu in formal conferences which included participants from UK government, and it was also communicated by Michael Devereux to HM Treasury officials in 2017 and 2018 in private meetings. The UK has issued two recent consultations (in November 2017 and March 2018) on the taxation of the digital economy. While not specifically citing this work, they are based on the presumption, consistent with the results of the research, that many foreign multinationals pay little or no corporation tax in the UK. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Article in The Conversation by Michael Devereux in response to UK budget |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Michael Devereux was quick to respond to Philip Hammond's budget announcement saying that the Chancellor 'is concerned about the tax incentives for individuals and partnerships to incorporate - when they would be liable to corporation tax and income taxes on dividends - instead of income tax on the whole income.' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/uk-budget-2017-experts-respond-73998 |
| Description | Article in The Independent mentioning Michael Deveruex on US tax reforms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Deluded Republicans are accidentally pushing for progressive corporation tax reform Comment by Michael Devereux cited in this article |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Article by Michael Devereux in The Financial Times on Trumps tax plans in the US |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Trump and the tax plan threatening to split corporate America Article on proposed new tax plans for US contains quote by Michael Devereux that if it goes ahead it could be the biggest shake-ep of cross border taxation since the 1920's. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.ft.com/content/008532fa-ef7a-11e6-ba01-119a44939bb6 |
| Description | Article by Michael Devereux in the New York TImes on The case for border-adjusted tax |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | In this article on the Opinion Pages of the NYT Michael Devereux makes the case for a border adjusted tax in this opinion piece written with Alan Auerbach. 'Our decision should be clear. We need to adjust to new ideas like a destination-based cash-flow tax. In the end, the short-run economic adjustments required would be a small price to pay for an enduring, fair and rational tax system,' they said. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/opinion/the-case-for-a-border-adjusted-tax.html?_r=0 |
| Description | Article in International Tax Review on corporate tax sought expert opinion from Michael Devereux |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | UK expedites EU corporate tax race to the bottom Amelia Schwanke from the International Tax Review sought the expert opinion of Saïd's Michael Devereux for her article on corporate tax within the EU. Michael stated 'we may not appear to be at the bottom but we are getting much closer. If you asked me 10 years ago we'd be talking about reductions in tax rates from 30% to 28%, now we're talking about 17% to 15%, so I would say that we've gone down a long way.' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.internationaltaxreview.com/Article/3574269/Latest-News/UK-expedites-EU-corporate-tax-race... |
| Description | Article in New York TImes on Michael Devereux's research on Corporate Tax |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Michael Devereux's taxation research has contributed to a significant change of approach to the way America collects its taxes, reports the New York Times. The article describes how the research 'introduced the term destination-based corporate tax,' an idea which now forms the backbone of new taxation proposals that look set to be implemented in the US next year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/business/economy/new-approach-to-corporate-tax-reform.html?_r=3 |
| Description | Article in Politics Home mentions research by the Centre for Business Taxation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Rachel Reeves MP: Philip Hammond should drop the misguided plan to cut corporation tax. Includes comment that according to the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation, 81% of corporation tax is paid by just 1% of all companies. The vast majority of Britain's five million small and medium-sized enterprises pay no corporation tax at all. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/economy/taxation/opinion/house-commons/77531/rachel-reeves-mp-p... |
| Description | Article in The Economist on cutting corporation tax mentions a research paper from the Centre for Business Taxation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A bad time to be cutting Britain's corporate-tax rate Article on corporation tax in the UK notes that a recent Oxford University research paper found that just 1% of British firms pay four-fifths of the total corporation tax bill. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21710944-marginal-decline-corporation-tax-pales-comparison-fi... |
| Description | Article in The Economist on foreign direct investement and taxation notes views of Michael Devereux |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Capital Mobility: The good, the bad and the ugly. Article on foreign direct investment and taxation notes the views of Michael Devereux. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21707836-foreign-direct-investment-mostly-welcome-larg... |
| Description | Article in The Independent includes comment from Michael Devereux on proposal to cut corporation tax |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Economists oppose George Osborne's corporation tax cuts crusade Professor Michael Devereux comments on the Chancellor's proposal to cut corporation tax. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/economists-oppose-george-osbornes-corporation-tax-cr... |
| Description | Article in The Irish Times by Michael Devereux on Trumps proposed tax reforms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Trump's proposed tax reforms are causing consternation for business owners in the US. The Irish Times summarises the issues, and quotes Michael Devereux as saying that 'Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands would have particular reason to worry' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.irishtimes.com/business/civil-war-looms-in-corporate-america-over-trump-tax-plan-1.29754... |
| Description | Article in The Wall Street Journal mentions resewarch by Michael Devereux |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Republicans take new tack on taxing companies' overseas profits article includes comment relating to research by Michael Devereux, Director - Centre for Business Taxation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-take-new-tack-on-taxing-companies-overseas-profits-14718179... |
| Description | Article in the Financial Times includes comments by Michael Devereux on changes to corporation tax announced in the Budget |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | 'Blazing a trail' with corporation tax Article by Vanessa Houlder with comments by Michael Devereux on the changes to corporation tax announced in the Budget. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Corruption and profit shifting - presentation by Katarzyna Habu at the INternational Institute of Public Finance at Lake Tahoe in August 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 72nd Annual Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance was hosted by the Department of Economics and the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno between 9 and 11 August, 2016 More than 360 delegates from 40 countries attended the Congress with about half of the attendees coming from Europe, a third from North America and the rest from other countries in Asia, South America, and Africa. The theme of the congress, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Public Policy, was highlighted by four plenary speakers: Roger Gordon ("How Should Taxes be Designed to Encourage Entrepreneurship?"), Robert Fairlie ("Government Training, Affirmative Action, and Entrepreneurship"),Dietmar Harhoff ("Innovation and Taxation"), and Hal Varian ("Google Tools for Data"). The main body of the Congress consisted of 280 contributed papers (out of 401 submissions), covering all topics within public economics. There were six working groups with up to 13 parallel sessions in each group. In total, 76 working group sessions were organised. The Scientific Chairs continued an innovation of last year's Congress and included invited papers which were solicited by and organized into sessions by members of the scientific committee. As usual, a selection of contributed papers and plenary presentations will appear in a special issue of International Tax and Public Finance in 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Devereux, M GIZ Policy Panel: New rules for global taxation - Challenges for developing and developed countires. 70th Annual Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance Lugano |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Panel discussion on global taxation rules. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Devereux, M.P. The elasticity of corporate taxable income: new evidence from UK tax records. Institute of Economics (IdEP) Seminar, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Italy. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | The presentation generated questions and discussion afterwards. Unknown |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | GUceri, I Productivity and R&D tax incentives Workshop for HMRC-HMT |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presented findings of research to policymakers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Guceri I. and Lui, L Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D a quasi experiment at ZEW Public Finance Conference Mannheim |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Opportunity ot discuss research with an European audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Guceri, I Cash credits and liquidity constraints Centre for Business Taxation seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of work in progress. received feedback from academics and other researchers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Guceri, I Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D: a quasi experiment. Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data Conference, Istanbul |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the conference was to promote scientific research using enterprise microdata. The conference was a unique meeting point for producers and users of these data, such as statisticians, economists and econometricians, and an opportunity for policymakers to get acquainted with the newest research results and policy implications in this rapidly expanding field. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Guceri, I and Liu, L Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D: a quasi experiment HMRC Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Members of HMRC and HMT attended the session to discuss the growing academic and policy interest in R&D tax incentives as the question about their effectiveness has become ever more relevant. the research contains statistics from HMRC and information from HMRC Datalab. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Guceri, I and Liu, L Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D: a quasi experiment Presented to HMRC and HMT |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presented research to national policymakers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Guceri, I. Effects of tax breaks on firm level outcomes National Tax Association Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented findings to US audience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | How aggressive are foreign multinational companies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence from UK confidential corporate tax returns Presentation by Katarzyna Habu at the International Institute of Public Finance Congress at Lake Tahoe in August 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 72nd Annual Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance was hosted by the Department of Economics and the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno between 9 and 11 August, 2016 More than 360 delegates from 40 countries attended the Congress with about half of the attendees coming from Europe, a third from North America and the rest from other countries in Asia, South America, and Africa. The theme of the congress, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Public Policy, was highlighted by four plenary speakers: Roger Gordon ("How Should Taxes be Designed to Encourage Entrepreneurship?"), Robert Fairlie ("Government Training, Affirmative Action, and Entrepreneurship"),Dietmar Harhoff ("Innovation and Taxation"), and Hal Varian ("Google Tools for Data"). The main body of the Congress consisted of 280 contributed papers (out of 401 submissions), covering all topics within public economics. There were six working groups with up to 13 parallel sessions in each group. In total, 76 working group sessions were organised. The Scientific Chairs continued an innovation of last year's Congress and included invited papers which were solicited by and organized into sessions by members of the scientific committee. As usual, a selection of contributed papers and plenary presentations will appear in a special issue of International Tax and Public Finance in 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Interview on Al-Jazeera Newshour programme where Micahel Devereux discusses EU taxing of multinationals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Michael Devereux discusses EU taxing of multinationals |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Interview with Michael Devereux on BBC News 24 on EU's proposals on increasing business income and taxation transparency |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview with Michael Devereux on BBC News 24 on EU's proposals on increasing business income and taxation transparency |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Interview with Michael Devereux on BBC Radio 4 PM discusses the EUs proposals on increasing business income and taxation transparency |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Michael Devereux from the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation discusses the EU's proposals on increasing business income and taxation transparency. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Liu, L VAT notches - National Tax Association Annual Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of research to International audience in Boston USA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Liu, L. Business taxation and firm behaviour: evidence from the HMRC Datalab. HMRC - KAI Presentation, HMRC, London, UK. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation providing an overview of some of the current projects and published research undertaken in the HMRC Datalab. Unknown |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Liu, L. Incorporation for investment: Evidence fromthe UK IIPF Dubin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of research findings before an international audience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Liu, L. Small business incorporation and investment: the role of corporation tax. FZID Lecture Series Research Seminar, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Research Seminar given by Dr Li Liu on 'Small business incorporation and investment: the role of Corporation Tax' as part of the FZID Lecture Series, University of Hohenheim, Germany. The presentation generated questions and discussion afterwards. Unknown |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | https://fzid.uni-hohenheim.de/70728?L=1 |
| Description | Liu, L. VAT Notches. HMRC Seminar, London, UK. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Policy makers from the HM Treasury and HMRC attended the presentation, which aims to improve current understanding on the effects of VAT registration threshold on small businesses activities. None |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G Capital allowances and investment: evidence fron UK corporate tax returns - Economic seminars University of Strathclyde |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of material to interested audience in Scotland |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G The HMRC Datalab. Empirical Tax Research and Data Workshop at University of Canberra, Australia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Opportunity to discuss research and finding from UK tax regime with those in a different tax regime. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Business taxation and its impact on capital structure: evidence from the bank of Italy. XXVI Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Public Economics (SIEP), Pavia, Italy. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Dr Maffini's presentation has raised an interesting discussion about the interactions between the tax system, the regulatory system and the financial sector. Not aware of any notable impacts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.siepweb.it/siep/en/xxvi-conferenza-2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Capital allowances and investment: evidence from UK corporate tax returns. 4th EIASM Workshop on Current Research in Taxation, University of Münster, Münster, Germany. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | About 20 people attended the presentation. The discussion of Dr Maffini's results has raised an interesting discussion on the interaction between the tax system and investment. Not aware of any notable impacts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.eiasm.org/frontoffice/event_announcement.asp?event_id=1033 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Capital allowances and investment: evidence from UK corporate tax returns. 70th Annual Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF): 'Redesigning the Welfare State for Aging Societies', Lugano, Switzerland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | About 30 people attended the presentation. The discussion of Dr Maffini's results has raised an interesting discussion on the interaction between the tax system and investment. Not aware of any notable impacts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.iipf2014.ch/ |
| Description | Maffini, G. Capital allowances and investment: evidence from UK corporate tax returns. Department of Economics Seminar Series, University of Ancona, Ancona, Italy. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | About 20 people attended the presentation. The discussion of Dr Maffini's results has raised an interesting discussion on the interaction between the tax system and investment. Not aware of any notable impacts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Capital allowances and investment: evidence from UK corporate tax returns. Economic Seminars, HMRC, London, UK. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | About 20 people attended the presentation. The discussion of Dr Maffini's results has raised an interesting discussion on both her work and on its implications for tax policy. Not aware of any notable impacts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Capital allowances and investment: evidence from UK corporate tax returns. Economic Seminars, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | About 30 people attended the presentation. The discussion of Dr Maffini's results has then been reported to a wider group within both the HMRC and the HMT. Dr Maffini was told my results will be used to inform policy making. Dr Maffini was also encouraged by HMRC and HMT officials to do a further study on additional policy changes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Capital allowances and investment: evidence from UK corporate tax returns. HMRC - KAI Presentation, HMRC, London, UK. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | About 10 people attended the meeting and the discussion of Dr Maffini's results has then been reported to a wider group within both the HMRC and the HMT. Dr Maffini was told that her results will be used to inform policy-making. She was also encouraged by HMRC and HMT officials to do a further study on other policy changes introduced in the field of capital allowances. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. Taxation and investment of small and medium sized companies: evidence from UK tax returns. Research Colloquium in Finance, Accounting, and Taxes, Department of Finance, Accounting, and Taxes, University of Göttingen, Germany. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | About 20 people attended the presentation. The discussion of Dr Maffini's results has raised an interesting discussion on the interaction between the tax system and investment. Not aware of any notable impacts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Maffini, G. The Annual investment allowance. HMT/HMRC Introductory Meeting, London, UK. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | About 10 people attended the meeting and the discussion of Dr Maffini's results has then been reported to a wider group within both the HMRC and the HMT. Dr Maffini was told that her results will be used to inform policy making. She was also encouraged by HMRC and HMT officials to do a further study on additional data available with HMRC. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Mention of research paper in article on The Economist relating to cutting corporation tax |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Cutting corporation tax: A costly distraction Article on corporation tax policy in Britain notes a recent Oxford University research paper which found that just 1% of firms pay four-fifths of the total corporation-tax bill. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21711058-marginal-decline-corporation-tax-pales-comparison-fi... |
| Description | Michael Devereux Interview with BBC World News re EU ruling over Appple and tax owed to Irish Government |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Michael Devereux, Director of the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, is interviewed about the ruling by the EU that Apple owes billions in tax to the Irish government |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation by Irem Guceri on Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D: quasi-experimental evidence at a meeting bringing tax researchers and tax authorities together in Helsinki |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Participated in an event between tax researchers and the tax authorities arranged by VATT. The Parliament of Finland set up VATT Institute for Economic Research in 1990 by merging two planning organizations: the planning secretariat of the Ministry of Finance and the Economic Planning Centre. VATT became a separate institute supervised by the economics department of the Ministry of Finance, its mission being to study the structures of the economy very broadly. The aim was to discuss and interact with other tax researchers and those who work for tax authorities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Irem Guceri on Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D: quasi-experimental evidence at the University of Gottingen |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Irem presented her paper before an audience of students and academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Irem Guceri on Pessimistic or Desparate? Structural evidence on financing constraints from a natural experiment at a seminar for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, Washington DC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Irem was invited to participate in a seminar before the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement monetary policy of the United States. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Irem Guceri on Pessimistic or desperate? structural evidence on financing constraints from natural experiment at Bosphorus University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Irem Guçeri, had a visiting researcher position at Bogazici (Bosphorus) University - where she gave this seminar. She also had meetings with graduate students and faculty. Whilst there, she also discussed future research possibilities on tax policy, trade, R&D and productivity. The Centre is looking into doing collaborative work using Turkish micro data on tax returns, import-exports, firm level R&D and productivity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Irem Guceri on Tax treatment of losses: Effects on financial performance at the National Taxation Association Conference in Baltimore USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 109th Annual Conference on Taxation covered a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, taxation and tax policies; expenditure policies; government budgeting; intergovernmental relations; and subnational, national, and international public finance. The conference focussed, as always, on policy-relevant research bearing on taxation and government spending. Olivier Blanchard (C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus, MIT) and Antonio Weiss (Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury) were the luncheon keynote speakers. The Saturday afternoon short course sponsored by the University of Michigan Office of Tax Policy Research was presented by Robert Moffitt (Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University) and focussed on recent research in the distributional and tax rate structure of the U.S. Welfare System. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation by Katarzyna Habu on Are financing constraints binding for investment? Evidence natural experiment at the ZEW Public Finance Conference in Mannheim |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The symposium is one of the most important European conferences in the field of public finance. The event was attended by around 30 international researchers who came to discuss their latest research findings on topics such as public procurement, taxation and wealth distribution. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| Description | Presentation by Katarzyna Habu on How aggressive are foreign complanies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence from UK confidential corporate tax returns at LAGV conference in Marseilles |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | LAGV conference has been held annually since 2002 and discusses public economics in Europe. It aims to promote and diffuse high quality research, with a special emphasis on articles that shed light on 'real world' policy making. In this sense, this conference is in the spirit of the project developed by the late Louis-André Gérard-Varet. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Katarzyna Habu on How aggressive are foreign complanies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence from UK confidential corporate tax returns at the launch of the European Network for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research in Brussels |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The European Network for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research is a unique collaboration of policy-oriented university and non-university research institutes that will contribute their scientific expertise to the discussion of the future design of the European Union. In spring 2017, the network was founded by the ifo Institute together with eight other renowned European research institutes as a new voice for research in Europe. Its task is also to transfer its research results to the relevant target groups in government, business and research as well as to the general public. The Centre for Business Taxation is a founding partner of the group known as EconPol |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Katarzyna Habu on How aggressive are foreign multinational compainies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence fronm UK confidential corporate tax returns at the National Tax Association COnference in USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 109th Annual Conference on Taxation covered a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, taxation and tax policies; expenditure policies; government budgeting; intergovernmental relations; and subnational, national, and international public finance. The conference focussed, as always, on policy-relevant research bearing on taxation and government spending. Olivier Blanchard (C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus, MIT) and Antonio Weiss (Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury) were luncheon keynote speakers. The Saturday afternoon short course sponsored by the University of Michigan Office of Tax Policy Research was presented by Robert Moffitt (Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University) and focussed on recent research in the distributional and tax rate structure of the U.S. Welfare System. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation by Katarzyna Habu on How aggressive are foreign multinational companies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence from UK confidential corporate tax returns at WIEM conference in Warsaw |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An opportunity for Katarzyna to present her research at an international conference for economists and researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Katarzyna Habu on How aggressive are foreign multinational companies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence from UK confidential corporate tax returns at the ETPF Conference in London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The European Tax Policy Forum and the IFS held their conference in 2017 on the topic of Evolution or Revolution? The future of taxing multinationals. Katarzyna Habu of Oxford University presented her findings regarding how multinationals' tax contributions in the UK compare to those of domestic companies with similar profiles. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation by Michael Devereux "Research on Corporate Taxation - what is the hard evidence on claims of MNC underpayment?" at the International Tax and Investment Center Board of Directors Briefing in London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Since 1993, the International Tax and Investment Center has served as the premier clearinghouse for Western taxation and investment know-how for business and the governments of transition economies. Corporations, accounting firms and law firms have all come to rely on ITIC's depth of experience and direct access to key policymakers to help lay the foundation for a growing democratic process and, more specifically, practical tax and investment laws in those countries. Through its trusted advisory relationship with government and parliamentary officials, ITIC has been a vital component in the creation and enhancement of enterprise and economic prosperity. ITIC encourages tax, trade and investment policies that enhance economic growth in non-OECD countries by facilitating mutual understanding between business and government through the ITIC "neutral table," where stakeholders convene to discuss academic analyses, policy studies and international best practices. This briefing was for those Directors who sit on Boards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation by Michael Devereux on What should the company tax look like at the Corporate Tax Conference at he Tax and Transfer Policy Institute of the Australian National University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | opportunity to present and discuss research with other academics with interests in the same area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | The Effects of Business Taxation on Economic and Social Welfare: New Insights from Tax Return Data workshop. Event to mark the end of the research project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | To discuss some of the findings that emerged from the research project with representatives of HMRC before an interested audience consisting of policymakers, industry and others. Six of the papers which form part of the output of the project, and which reflect these issues, were presented in the workshop.The aim of the project was to improve significantly our understanding of the impacts of taxation on the behaviour of business, and the costs to society of that impact. The recent availability of tax return data represented a significant step change in the evidence base for empirical research on the effects of business taxation. The project aimed to exploit these data to estimate the role of taxation in four distinct aspects of business behaviour: investment, source of finance, legal form and avoidance. Paper abstracts Effectiveness of fiscal incentives for R&D: a quasi-experiment Irem Guceri and Li Liu Abstract: Governments implement tax incentives for R&D as a convenient way of addressing the externality problem caused by the public good nature of knowledge. With growing interest in R&D tax incentives, the question about their effectiveness has become ever more relevant. In the absence of an exogenous policy reform, the simultaneous determination of companies' tax positions and their R&D spending causes an identification problem. We are able to overcome this problem by exploiting a policy reform that took place in the UK. We use the population of corporation tax records that provide precise information on the amount of firm-level R&D expenditure that qualify for the tax incentive. Using difference-in-differences to estimate the effect of the policy, we find a positive and significant impact of R&D tax incentives on firm level R&D spending, and an implied user cost elasticity estimate of around -2.5. VAT notches, voluntary registration, and bunching: theory and UK evidence Li Liu and Ben Lockwood Abstract: We develop a conceptual framework that allows simultaneously for (i) voluntary registration for VAT by firms below the registration threshold; and (ii) bunching at the registration threshold. This framework also generates predictions about how voluntary registration and bunching are related to intensity of input use, the share of B2C transactions for a firm, opportunities for evasion via under-reporting of sales, and the competitiveness of the market in which the firm is located. We bring the theory to the data, using linked administrative VAT and corporation tax records in the UK from 2004-2009. Consistently with the theory, we find that voluntary registration is positively related to the intensity of input use and negatively to the share of B2C transactions, and the amount of bunching is related to these variables in the opposite way. There is some evidence that product market competition leads to more voluntary registration, and less bunching. In addition, we find some suggestive evidence that firms are bunching by under-reporting sales. The impact of investment incentives: evidence from UK corporation tax returns Michael P. Devereux, Giorgia Maffini and Jing Xing* * Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Abstract: How do tax incentives affect firms' investment? Using confidential UK corporation tax returns, we provide new evidence on the effects of incentives in the form of depreciation allowances. We exploit a 2004 exogenous change in the qualifying thresholds for the first-year depreciation allowances (FYAs) and conduct a difference-in-difference analysis. Results suggest that the investment rate increased between 2.1 and 2.6 percentage points when firms became qualified for FYAs, relative to firms that never qualified. This implies an increase in investment rate of 11 per cent at the mean. We exploit exogenous variation in the timing of tax payments to show that this large effect is not due to an increase in available cash and hence, this is primarily a cost of capital effect. Firms respond rather quickly to FYAs, within 12 to 18 months. Firms also bunch just below notches in the cost of capital created by the qualifying thresholds, suggesting salience of the FYAs. Such behaviour does not drive our main results. Stimulating investment through incorporation Michael P. Devereux and Li Liu Abstract: We examine the effect of incorporation in stimulating small business investment. Exploring a 2006 UK tax reform that lowered the tax gain to incorporation and reduced the after-tax internal funds for small companies, we present three main results. First, a one-percentage-point reduction in the tax gain decreased the number of new incorporations by 4.5 percent. Second, on average, a £1 reduction in the post-tax internal funds of newly-incorporated firms would reduce their investment by 90 pence, consistent with them facing severe financial constraints. Third, this impact on investment gradually diminished after incorporation, consistent with incorporation improving access to external finance. How aggressive are foreign multinational companies in avoiding corporation tax? Evidence from UK confidential corporate tax returns Katarzyna Anna Habu Abstract: In this paper, I use confidential UK corporate tax returns dataset from Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to explore whether there are systematic differences in the amount of taxable profits that multinational and domestic companies report. Multinationals are important global corporate players and, particularly in the UK, they have contributed almost 50 percent of total UK revenues between 2000 and 2011. However, multinationals often have more opportunities to avoid tax than domestic standalones; hence they may pay less than their fair share of corporation tax. I estimate, using propensity score matching, that taxable profits relative to total assets reported by foreign multinational subsidiaries are 12.8 percentage points lower than those of comparable domestic standalones, which report their taxable profits to total assets ratio to be 25.2 percent. If we assume that all of the difference can be attributed to tax avoidance, foreign multinational subsidiaries avoid over half of their taxable profits in the UK. The difference is almost entirely attributable to the fact that higher proportion of foreign multinational subsidiaries report zero taxable profits (61.1 percent) than domestic standalones (28.6 percent), suggesting a very aggressive form of tax avoidance. International transfer pricing and tax avoidance Li Liu & Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr* *Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr, Economist, International Finance division, Federal Reserve Board Abstract: This paper employs unique data on export transactions and corporate tax returns to study transfer pricing by UK multinational firms. It finds that multinationals manipulate their transfer prices to shift profits to lower-tax destinations. The extend of transfer pricing manipulation intensified after the 2009 UK tax reform from a worldwide to a territorial corporate tax system, with multinationals further reducing their export prices to low-tax jurisdictions. Transfer price manipulation increases in a firm's R&D intensity, is more prevalent for core products of a firm, but is independent of a firm's pre-tax profit status. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/faculty-research/tax/events/workshop-effects-business-taxation-economic-and... |
| Description | Will the real R&D employees please stand up? Effects of tax braks onform level outcomes - presentation by Irem Guceri at International Institute of Public Finance conference, Lake Tahoe In August 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The 72nd Annual Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance was hosted by the Department of Economics and the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno between 9 and 11 August, 2016 More than 360 delegates from 40 countries attended the Congress with about half of the attendees coming from Europe, a third from North America and the rest from other countries in Asia, South America, and Africa. The theme of the congress, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Public Policy, was highlighted by four plenary speakers: Roger Gordon ("How Should Taxes be Designed to Encourage Entrepreneurship?"), Robert Fairlie ("Government Training, Affirmative Action, and Entrepreneurship"),Dietmar Harhoff ("Innovation and Taxation"), and Hal Varian ("Google Tools for Data"). The main body of the Congress consisted of 280 contributed papers (out of 401 submissions), covering all topics within public economics. There were six working groups with up to 13 parallel sessions in each group. In total, 76 working group sessions were organised. The Scientific Chairs continued an innovation of last year's Congress and included invited papers which were solicited by and organized into sessions by members of the scientific committee. As usual, a selection of contributed papers and plenary presentations will appear in a special issue of International Tax and Public Finance in 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Xing, J. Corporate tax incentives and capital structure: empirical evidence from the UK tax returns. Modern Economics Lecture Series, China Centre for Economic Studies, School of Economics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Around 20 academic researchers and students attended the talk, which led to questions and discussion during and after the seminar. It raised the interest of the audience on the topic and led them to think about the possible application of the idea to a Chinese context. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | liu, L. Incorporation for Investment American Economic Association Annual Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion of research with international audience |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |