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Real Responses to Anti-tax Avoidance: Evidence from the UK Worldwide Debt Cap

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  • Bilicka, Katarzyna
  • Xing, Jing
  • Qi, Yaxuan

Abstract

We analyze how multinational firms reallocate real operations and debt across their affiliates in response to anti-tax avoidance policies. The UK introduced a worldwide debt cap in 2010, generating a quasi-natural experiment that limited interest deductibility for a group of multinational firms. We find that multinationals affected by the reform reduced the amount of debt held in the UK and increased debt held abroad. Affected multinationals reallocated a share of their real operations away from the UK. Our findings provide causal evidence for tax-motivated debt and real activity reallocation within multinationals and show how multinationals can circumvent tax avoidance regulations.

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  • Bilicka, Katarzyna & Xing, Jing & Qi, Yaxuan, 2021. "Real Responses to Anti-tax Avoidance: Evidence from the UK Worldwide Debt Cap," CEPR Discussion Papers 16068, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:16068
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    Cited by:

    1. Katarzyna Bilicka & Daniela Scur, 2021. "Organizational capacity and profit shifting," CEP Discussion Papers dp1795, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Katarzyna Bilicka & Michael Devereux & Irem Güçeri, 2023. "Tax-Avoidance Networks and the Push for a “Historic” Global Tax Reform," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 57-108.
    3. Amendolagine, Vito & Bruno, Randolph Luca & Cipollina, Maria & De Pascale, Gianluigi, 2023. "Minimum Global Tax: Winners and Losers in the Race for Mergers and Acquisitions," IZA Discussion Papers 16144, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Triadi Agung Sudarto & Dodik Juliardi, 2022. "The effect of perceptions on tax evasion and tax sanction on ethical behaviour of accounting student compliance," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(10), pages 206-216, December.
    5. Katarzyna Bilicka & Evgeniya Dubinina & Petr Janský, 2022. "Fiscal consequences of corporate tax avoidance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-97, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Katarzyna A. Bilicka & André Seidel, 2022. "Measuring Firm Activity from Outer Space," NBER Working Papers 29945, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Katarzyna Bilicka, 2021. "Labor Market Consequences of Antitax Avoidance Policies," Upjohn Working Papers 21-354, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    8. Jaqueline Hansen & Valeria Merlo & Georg Wamser, 2023. "Taxes, Profit Shifting, and the Real Activities of MNEs: Evidence from Corporate Tax Notches," CESifo Working Paper Series 10593, CESifo.
    9. Souillard, Baptiste, 2022. "Corporate tax cuts and firm employment: A match made in haven?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    10. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Clancey-Shang, Danjue & Qi, Yaxuan, 2022. "Tax avoidance regulations and stock market responses," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Debt shifting; Multinational companies; Capital reallocation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

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