FIE441 Taxes and Business Strategy

• Topics

  The course outlines the international tax environment and analyzes how it affects tax and financial reporting as well as income shifting by multinationals. The syllabus of the course is:

  • Introduction to corporate tax environment 
  • Principles of corporate taxation.
  • Principle of international taxation
  • Taxes and innovation
  • Multinationals and profit shifting
  • Anti-tax avoidance rules
  • Tax transparency initiatives
  • Tax Transparency
  • Tax and ESG

• Learning outcome

  Knowledge

  Upon successful completion of the course the student:

  • Knows the basic of corporate taxation and international tax
  • Understands how taxes affect corporate decisions (e.g. financing, transfer pricing, foreign holding company, innovation)
  • Knows the current global anti-tax avoidance measures for countering aggressive tax planning
  • Has a basic understanding of how taxes relate to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

  Skills

  Upon successful completion of the course the student can

  • Apply the analytical tool set that allows for formally structuring and solving tax-planning problems.
  • Independently analyze and evaluate the implications of future changes in regulation and the institutional setting.
  • Apply her/his knowledge on international taxation and how it affect corporate decisions in a meaningful way.

  General competence

  Upon successful completion of the course the student

  • Has advanced expertise on international taxation.
  • Can communicate with specialists in both academia and practice about complex issues in existing tax systems around the world and how tax rules affects corporate decision.

• Teaching

  Teaching will consist of lectures as well as guest lectures.

• Recommended prerequisites

  Some prior basic knowledge in finance and accounting is helpful.

• Credit reduction due to overlap

  None.

• Compulsory Activity

  None.

• Assessment

  Group project (in groups of 1-5 students) organized in collaboration with Big4. The project is divided into two parts that will be graded separately:

  • Written report (counts for 50 %).
  • Presentation (counts for 50 %).

  The aim of the project is to apply the theory learned in class to a real business case, involving a tax related issue faced by a multinational company.

  The students will be working on both the written report and the oral presentation between middle of February and middle of March.

  Both elements have to be taken in the same semester.

• Grading Scale

  A-F.

• Literature

  Collection of articles and readings, mainly provided on Canvas

  • The impact of globalization on tax structures in OECD Countries. By Peter Egger, Sergey Niagai and Nora Stecker (2016). VOX/CEPR article  https://voxeu.org/article/too-much-globalisation-can-be-taxinghttps://voxeu.org/article/too-much-globalisation-can-be-taxing
  • Company taxation and tax spillovers: Separate accounting versus formula apportionment by Nielsen, S.B, Raimondos-Møller, P., and G. Schjelderup (2010). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001429210900066Xhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001429210900066X
  • Heckemeyer J.H. and M. Overesch, 2017. Multinationals’ profit response to tax differentials: Effect size and shifting channels. Canadian Journal of Economics 50, 965-994 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/caje.12283https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/caje.12283
  • Gabrielsen, T., and G. Schjelderup, 1999. Transfer pricing and ownership structure. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 101(4), 673-688.
  • Buettner T., M. Overesch, U. Schreiber and G. Wamser, 2012. The impact of thin-capitalization rules on the capital structure of multinational firms. Journal of Public Economics 96, 930-938.
  • Clifford S., 2019. Taxing multinationals beyond borders: Financial and locational responses to CFC rules. Journal of Public Economics 173, 44-71.
  • Joshi, P. (2020). Does Private Country‐by‐Country Reporting Deter Tax Avoidance and Income Shifting? Evidence from BEPS Action Item 13. Journal of Accounting Research, 58(2), 333-381
  • Graham JR, Hanlon M, Shevlin T, and Shroff N. 2014. Incentives for tax planning and avoidance: Evidence from the field. The Accounting Review 98(3):991-1023
  • Schwab T., Todtenhaupt, M. (2021) Thinking outside the box: The cross-border effect of tax cuts on R&D. Journal of Public Economics 204, 104536.