Several recent papers argue that corporate income taxes should not be used by small, open economies. With capital mobility, the burden of the tax falls on fixed factors (e.g., labor), and the tax system is more efficient if labor is taxed directly. However, corporate taxes not only exist but rates are roughly comparable with the top personal tax rates. Past models also forecast that multinationals should not invest in countries with low corporate tax rates, since the surtax they owe when profits are repatriated puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Yet such foreign direct investment is substantial. We suggest that the resolution of these puzzles may be found in the role of income shifting, both domestic (between the personal and corporate tax bases) and cross-border (through transfer pricing). Countries need cash-flow corporate taxes as a backstop to labor taxes to discourage individuals from converting their labor income into otherwise untaxed corporate income. We explore how these taxes can best be modified to deal as well with cross-border shifting.

Several recent papers argue that corporate income taxes should not be used by small, open economies. With capital mobility, the burden of the tax falls on fixed factors (e.g., labor), and the tax system is more efficient if labor is taxed directly. However, corporate taxes not only exist but rates are roughly comparable with the top personal tax rates. Past models also forecast that multinationals should not invest in countries with low corporate tax rates, since the surtax they owe when profits are repatriated puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Yet such foreign direct investment is substantial. We suggest that the resolution of these puzzles may be found in the role of income shifting, both domestic (between the personal and corporate tax bases) and cross-border (through transfer pricing). Countries need cash-flow corporate taxes as a backstop to labor taxes to discourage individuals from converting their labor income into otherwise untaxed corporate income. We explore how these taxes can best be modified to deal as well with cross-border shifting.

Optimal tax reform : transitional issues in implementing tax reform -- Implementing tax reform -- Optimal tax reform in the presence of adjustment costs -- Grandfather rules and the theory of optimal tax reform -- Consumption tax reform: changes in business equity and housing prices / (with John W. Diamond) -- Consumption taxation -- Should capital income be subject to consumption-based taxation? -- A hybrid consumption-based direct tax proposed for Bolivia / (with Charles E. McLure, Jr.) -- U.S. Supreme Court unanimously chooses substance over form in foreign tax credit case : implications of the PPL decision for the creditability of cash-flow taxes / (with Charles E. McLure, Jr. and Jack Mintz) -- Taxation, uncertainty and the choice of a consumption tax base -- Optimal commodity taxation of traditional and electronic commerce income tax reform -- Treasury I and the Tax Reform Act of 1986 : the economics and politics of tax reform / (with Charles E. McLure, Jr.) -- The windfall recapture tax : issues of theory and design -- Balancing act: weighing the factors affecting the taxation of capital income in a small open economy / (with Margaret McKeehan) -- State and local tax policy -- Revenue options for the state of texas -- The new view of the property tax : a reformulation / (with Peter Mieszkowski) -- The property tax as a capital tax : a room with three views -- Intrajurisdictional capitalization and the incidence of the property tax -- Tax competition -- Pigou, Tiebout, property taxation and the under-provision of local public goods / (with Peter Mieszkowski) -- Capital mobility and capital tax competition -- Tax competition and the efficiency of "benefit-related" business taxes / (with Elisabeth Gugl).