New article by Dirk Schindler and Guttorm Schjelderup

6 June 2017 10:02

(updated: 6 June 2017 10:06)

New article by Dirk Schindler and Guttorm Schjelderup

The article "Immobilizing Corporate Income Shifting: Should It Be Safe to Strip in the Harbor?" has been accepted for publication in Journal of Public Economics.

Journal of Public Economics is on level 3 in the ABS Academic Journal Guide.

Gresik, Thomas A., Dirk Schindler, and Guttorm Schjelderup: Immobilizing Corporate Income Shifting: Should It Be Safe to Strip in the Harbor? Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming.

Abstract

Many subsidiaries can deduct interest payments on internal debt from their taxable income.  By issuing internal debt from a tax haven, multinationals can shift income out of host countries through the interest rates they charge and the amount of internal debt they issue.  We show that, from a welfare perspective, thin capitalization rules that restrict the amount of debt for which interest is tax deductible (safe harbor rules) are inferior to rules that limit the ratio of debt interest to pre-tax earnings (earnings stripping rules), even if a safe harbor rule is used in conjunction with an earnings stripping rule.