An empirical examination of the influence of e-commerce on tax avoidance in Europe

This paper reports an empirical analysis of the influence of e-commerce business practices on tax avoidance. Using a sample of European parent firms in the retail trade industry from 22 different countries, we find empirical evidence that e-commerce firms are significantly more tax avoidant than tra...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Argilés Bosch, Josep M., Somoza López, Antonio, Ravenda, Diego, García Blandón, Josep
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/172728
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/172728
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Comerç electrònic
Impostos
Indústria
Comerç al detall
Electronic commerce
Taxation
Industry
Retail trade
Descripción
Sumario:This paper reports an empirical analysis of the influence of e-commerce business practices on tax avoidance. Using a sample of European parent firms in the retail trade industry from 22 different countries, we find empirical evidence that e-commerce firms are significantly more tax avoidant than traditional firms. However, as the latter have increasingly sought to avoid paying taxes over the period studied, the gap between the two firm types has been reduced. Our results are robust to different specifications of tax avoidance, time, and sample selection criteria.