IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2309.13449.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Profit shifting under the arm's length principle

Author

Listed:
  • Alex A. T. Rathke

Abstract

This study analyses the tax-induced profit shifting behaviour of firms and the impact of governments' anti-shifting rules. We derive a model of a firm that combines internal sales and internal debt in a full profit shifting strategy, and which is required to apply the arm's length principle and a general thin capitalisation rule. We find several cases where the firm may shift profits to low-tax countries while satisfying the usual arm's length conditions in all countries. Internal sales and internal debt may be regarded either as complementary or as substitute shifting channels, depending on how the implicit concealment costs vary after changes in all transactions. We show that the cross-effect between the shifting channels facilitates profit shifting by means of accepted transfer prices and interest rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Alex A. T. Rathke, 2023. "Profit shifting under the arm's length principle," Papers 2309.13449, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2309.13449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.13449
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clausing, Kimberly A., 2003. "Tax-motivated transfer pricing and US intrafirm trade prices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2207-2223, September.
    2. Mardan, Mohammed, 2017. "Why countries differ in thin capitalization rules: The role of financial development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Bartelsman, Eric J. & Beetsma, Roel M. W. J., 2003. "Why pay more? Corporate tax avoidance through transfer pricing in OECD countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2225-2252, September.
    4. Sebastian Beer & Ruud de Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Review Of The Channels, Magnitudes, And Blind Spots," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 660-688, July.
    5. Manthos D. Delis & Iftekhar Hasan & Panagiotis I. Karavitis, 2020. "Profit shifting and tax‐rate uncertainty," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 645-676, May.
    6. Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2008. "Capital structure and international debt shifting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 80-118, April.
    7. Thomas Gresik & Petter Osmundsen, 2008. "Transfer pricing in vertically integrated industries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(3), pages 231-255, June.
    8. Gresik, Thomas A. & Schindler, Dirk & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2017. "Immobilizing corporate income shifting: Should it be safe to strip in the harbor?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 68-78.
    9. Jean-Thomas Bernard & Robert Weiner, 1990. "Multinational Corporations, Transfer Prices, and Taxes: Evidence from the US Petroleum Industry," NBER Chapters, in: Taxation in the Global Economy, pages 123-160, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2014. "What Do We Know about Base Erosion and Profit Shifting? A Review of the Empirical Literature," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 35, pages 421-448, December.
    11. Anca D. Cristea & Daniel X. Nguyen, 2016. "Transfer Pricing by Multinational Firms: New Evidence from Foreign Firm Ownerships," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 170-202, August.
    12. Gideon Goerdt & Wolfgang Eggert, 2022. "Substitution across profit shifting methods and the impact on thin capitalization rules," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(3), pages 581-599, June.
    13. Molly J. Saunders-Scott, 2015. "Substitution Across Methods of Profit Shifting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 68(4), pages 1099-1120, December.
    14. Kant, Chander, 1988. "Endogenous transfer pricing and the effects of uncertain regulation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 147-157, February.
    15. Alex A.T. Rathke & Amaury J. Rezende & Christoph Watrin, 2020. "Classification of transfer pricing systems across countries," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 164, pages 151-167.
    16. Jarle Møen & Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup & Julia Tropina Bakke, 2019. "International Debt Shifting: The Value-Maximizing Mix of Internal and External Debt," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 431-465, September.
    17. Rathke, Alex A.T. & Rezende, Amaury J. & Watrin, Christoph, 2020. "Classification of transfer pricing systems across countries," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 151-167.
    18. Guttorm Schjelderup & Alfons J. Weichenrieder, 1999. "Trade, Multinationals, and Transfer Pricing Regulations," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(3), pages 817-844, May.
    19. Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2016. "Multinationals and Income Shifting by Debt," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 263-286, September.
    20. Samuelson, Larry, 1982. "The multinational firm with arm's length transfer price limits," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3-4), pages 365-374, November.
    21. Buettner, Thiess & Overesch, Michael & Schreiber, Ulrich & Wamser, Georg, 2012. "The impact of thin-capitalization rules on the capital structure of multinational firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 930-938.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ropponen, Olli, 2021. "Interest Limitation Rules and Business Cycles: Empirical Evidence," ETLA Working Papers 90, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    2. Gideon Goerdt & Wolfgang Eggert, 2022. "Substitution across profit shifting methods and the impact on thin capitalization rules," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(3), pages 581-599, June.
    3. Ruud Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "At a Cost: The Real Effects of Transfer Pricing Regulations," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(1), pages 268-306, March.
    4. Hayato Kato & Hirofumi Okoshi, 2019. "Production location of multinational firms under transfer pricing: the impact of the arm’s length principle," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(4), pages 835-871, August.
    5. Sabine Schenkelberg, 2020. "The Cadbury Schweppes judgment and its implications on profit shifting activities within Europe," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(1), pages 1-31, February.
    6. Hayato Kato & Hirofumi Okoshi, 2022. "Economic Integration And Agglomeration Of Multinational Production With Transfer Pricing," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1325-1355, August.
    7. Ludvig Wier & Hayley Erasmus, 2023. "The Dominant Role of Large Firms in Profit Shifting," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(3), pages 791-816, September.
    8. Thiess Buettner & Michael Overesch & Georg Wamser, 2018. "Anti profit-shifting rules and foreign direct investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(3), pages 553-580, June.
    9. Makoto Hasegawa, 2023. "Territorial Tax Reform and Profit Shifting by US and Japanese Multinationals," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(4), pages 771-804.
    10. Alex A. T. Rathke & Amaury J. Rezende & Christoph Watrin & Rafael M. Antônio, 2023. "Profit shifting and the attractiveness of Advance Pricing Agreements," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(5), pages 817-857, July.
    11. Overesch Michael, 2016. "Steuervermeidung multinationaler Unternehmen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 129-143, July.
    12. Ludvig Wier & Hayley Reynolds, 2018. "Big and 'unprofitable': How 10 per cent of multinational firms do 98 per cent of profit shifting," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-111, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Sebastian Beer & Ruud de Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Review Of The Channels, Magnitudes, And Blind Spots," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 660-688, July.
    14. Keuschnigg, Christian & Devereux, Michael P., 2013. "The arm's length principle and distortions to multinational firm organization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 432-440.
    15. Nicolay, Katharina & Nusser, Hannah & Pfeiffer, Olena, 2017. "On the interdependency of profit shifting channels and the effectiveness of anti-avoidance legislation," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-066, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Christian Keuschnigg & Michael P. Devereux, 2009. "The Distorting Arm's Length Principle," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2009 2009-20, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    17. S. Juranek & D. Schindler & A. Schneider, 2023. "Royalty taxation under tax competition and profit shifting," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 1377-1412, November.
    18. Dirk Schindler & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2016. "Multinationals and Income Shifting by Debt," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 263-286, September.
    19. Hebous, Shafik & Johannesen, Niels, 2021. "At your service! The role of tax havens in international trade with services," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    20. Cyril Chalendard, 2016. "Shifting-Profits through Tax Loopholes. Evidence from Ecuador," CESifo Working Paper Series 6240, CESifo.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2309.13449. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.