Effects of taxation on European multi-nationals’ financing and profits

Important determinants of multinational firms’ choice of location include, besides resource cost and infrastructure, the taxation regime through its effects on international pricing and profits. This paper investigates the effects of tax rates on firms’ profits and financing decisions by analyzing a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Lutz, Stefan
Tipo de recurso: informe técnico
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/41449
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/41449
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:F2
G0
H3
MNE
DCF
Capital structure
Corporate income tax
Transfer pricing.
Finanzas
Econometría (Economía)
5302 Econometría
Descripción
Sumario:Important determinants of multinational firms’ choice of location include, besides resource cost and infrastructure, the taxation regime through its effects on international pricing and profits. This paper investigates the effects of tax rates on firms’ profits and financing decisions by analyzing a panel of several hundred thousand European firms for the years 1985 to 2010. Results indicate that taxation has a negative effect on overall firm profits but not on returns on shareholder funds. This is consistent with the observed positive effect of corporate taxation rates on the gearing ratio, i.e. the higher corporate tax rates in a particular jurisdiction the lower the share of equity financing of firms residing in that jurisdiction. This may indicate that high-tax jurisdictions deter valuable investment by multinational enterprises because they provide incentives to locate value-driving business parts requiring more equity financing elsewhere.