Arbeitspapier
Knocking on tax haven's door: Multinational firms and transfer pricing
This paper analyzes the transfer pricing of multinational firms. We propose a simple framework in which intra-firm prices may systematically deviate from arm's length prices for two motives: i) pricing to market, and ii) tax avoidance. Multinational firms may decide not to avoid taxes if the risk to be sanctioned is high compared to the tax gap. Using detailed French firm-level data on arm's length and intra-firm export prices, we find that both mechanisms are at work. The sensitivity of intra-firm prices to foreign taxes is reinforced once we control for pricing-to-market determinants. Most importantly, we find almost no evidence of tax avoidance if we disregard exports to tax havens. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that tax avoidance through transfer pricing amounts to about 1% of the total corporate taxes collected by tax authorities in France. The lion's share of this loss is driven by the exports of 450 firms to ten tax havens. As such, it may be possible to achieve significant revenue increases with minimal cost by targeting enforcement.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series ; No. WP14/21
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Multinational Firms; International Business
Business Taxes and Subsidies including sales and value-added (VAT)
Business Taxes and Subsidies including sales and value-added (VAT)
Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Firm
- Subject
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Transfer pricing
Tax haven
Pricing to market
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Davies, Ronald B.
Martin, Julien
Parenti, Mathieu
Toubal, Farid
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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University College Dublin, UCD School of Economics
- (where)
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Dublin
- (when)
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2014
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET
Data provider
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Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Davies, Ronald B.
- Martin, Julien
- Parenti, Mathieu
- Toubal, Farid
- University College Dublin, UCD School of Economics
Time of origin
- 2014
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