Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, University of applied sciences, Munich, course: Controlling, Investment, BWL, International Business, language: English, abstract: This paper gives a general overview of the corporate taxation system in the United States. The work begins with a definition of taxes and tax systems followed by the classification of business entities in the US. The main part describes the relevant legal taxation aspects that corporations face in the US and deals with the critical issue of tax deferral of US multinationals. This assignment will focus on the federal income tax that has the most importance for business decision making. This assignment ends with a final reflection of the topic and a conclusion by the author.

The book describes the difficulties of the current international corporate income tax system. It starts by describing its origins and how changes, such as the development of multinational enterprises and digitalization have created fundamental problems, not foreseen at its inception. These include tax competition—as governments try to attract tax bases through low tax rates or incentives, and profit shifting, as companies avoid tax by reporting profits in jurisdictions with lower tax rates. The book then discusses solutions, including both evolutionary changes to the current system and fundamental reform options. It covers both reform efforts already under way, for example under the Inclusive Framework at the OECD, and potential radical reform ideas developed by academics.

Jurisdiction to Tax Corporate Income Pursuant to the Presumptive Benefit Principle intends to demonstrate that the profit shifting phenomenon (i.e., the ability of companies to book their profits in jurisdictions other than those that host their economic activities) is real, severe, undesirable, and above all, the natural consequence of both the preservation of three fundamental paradigms that have historically underlain corporate income taxes and their precise legal configuration. In view of this, the book submits a number of proposals in relation to the aforementioned paradigms and in the light of the suggested “presumptive benefit principle” so as to counteract profit shifting risks and thus attain a more equitable allocation of taxing rights among States. This PhD thesis obtained the prestigious European Academic Tax Thesis Award 2018 granted by the European Commission and the European Association of Tax Law Professors. What’s in this book: This book provides a disruptive discourse on tax sovereignty in the field of corporate income taxation that endeavors to escape from long-standing tax policy tendencies and prejudices while considering the challenges posed by a globalized (and increasingly digitalized) economy. In particular, the book offers an innovative perspective on certain deep-rooted paradigms historically underlying corporate income taxation: tax treatment of related parties within a corporate group along with the arm’s-length standard; corporate tax residence standards; and definition of source for corporate income tax purposes, with a particular emphasis on the permanent establishment concept. The book explores their respective origins, supposed tax policy rationales, structural problems and interactions; ultimately showing how the way tax jurisdiction is currently defined through them inherently tends to trigger profit shifting outcomes. In view of the conclusions of the study, the author suggests the use of a new version of the traditional benefit principle (the “presumptive benefit principle”) that would contribute to address the profit shifting phenomenon while serving as a practical guideline to achieve a more equitable allocation of taxing rights among jurisdictions. Finally, the book submits a number of proposals inspired by the aforementioned guideline that aspire to strike a balance between equity, effectiveness and technical feasibility. They include a new corporate tax residence test and, most notably, a proposal on a new remote-sales permanent establishment. How this will help you: With its case study (based on the Apple group) empirically demonstrating the existence of the profit shifting phenomenon, its clearly documented exposure of the reasons why traditional corporate income tax regimes systematically give rise to these outcomes, its new tax policy guideline and its proposals for reform, this book makes a significant contribution to current tax policy discussions concerning corporate income taxation in cross-border scenarios. It will be warmly welcomed by all concerned—policymakers, scholars, practitioners—with the greatest tax policy challenges that corporate income taxation is facing in the contemporary world.

There is no consensus on how strongly the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) has stimulated U.S. private fixed investment. Some argue that the business tax provisions spurred investment by cutting the cost of capital. Others see the TCJA primarily as a windfall for shareholders. We find that U.S. business investment since 2017 has grown strongly compared to pre-TCJA forecasts and that the overriding factor driving it has been the strength of expected aggregate demand. Investment has, so far, fallen short of predictions based on the postwar relation with tax cuts. Model simulations and firm-level data suggest that much of this weaker response reflects a lower sensitivity of investment to tax policy changes in the current environment of greater corporate market power. Economic policy uncertainty in 2018 played a relatively small role in dampening investment growth.

This 2017 report sets out recommendations for branch mismatch rules that would bring the treatment of these structures into line with the treatment of hybrid mismatch arrangements as set out in the 2015 Report on Neutralising the Effects of Hybrids Mismatch Arrangements (Action 2 Report).