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Transfer pricing of intrafirm sales as a profit shifting channel: evidence from German firm data

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  • Overesch, Michael
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    Abstract

    This paper investigates whether transfer pricing of intrafirm sales within multinationals represents an important channel of company tax planning. A simple theoretical model, considering profit shifting activities of a multinational company, is used to obtain empirical implications. The empirical analysis, based on a panel of German multinationals, considers directly the supposed tax response of intrafirm sales. The analysis shows a significantly negative impact of the local tax rate on the size of balance sheet items, which reflect intrafirm sales. Thus, the results suggest that transfer pricing of intrafirm sales constitutes an important channel of companies? profit shifting activities. --

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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research in its series ZEW Discussion Papers with number 06-84.

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    Date of creation: 2006
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    Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:5477

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    Keywords: Taxation; Multinationals; Profit Shifting; Transfer Pricing; Firm-level Data;

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    1. Bernard, J-T. & Weiner, R.J., 1988. "Multinational Corporations, Transfer Prices, And Taxes: Evidence From The U.S. Petroleum Industry," Papers 8822, Laval - Recherche en Energie.
    2. Assaf Razin & Joel Slemrod, 1990. "Taxation in the Global Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number razi90-1, October.
    3. Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, 1988. "Do Taxes Affect Corporate Financing Decisions?," NBER Working Papers 2632, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. 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.
    5. Kant, Chander, 1990. "Multinational firms and government revenues," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 135-147, July.
    6. Mihir A. Desai & C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines, Jr., 2002. "The Costs of Shared Ownership: Evidence from International Joint Ventures," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Alliances National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Haufler, Andreas & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2000. "Corporate Tax Systems and Cross Country Profit Shifting," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 306-25, April.
    8. Guttorm Schjelderup & Lars Sorgard, 1997. "Transfer Pricing as a Strategic Device for Decentralized Multinationals," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 277-290, July.
    9. James R. Hines, Jr. & Eric M. Rice, 1994. "Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business," NBER Working Papers 3477, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Alfons Weichenrieder, 2007. "Profit Shifting in the EU: Evidence from Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 2043, CESifo Group Munich.
    11. Grubert, Harry & Mutti, John, 1991. "Taxes, Tariffs and Transfer Pricing in Multinational Corporate Decision Making," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(2), pages 285-93, May.
    12. Michael P Devereux, 2007. "The Impact of Taxation on the Location of Capital, Firms and Profit: a Survey of Empirical Evidence," Working Papers 0702, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
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    Cited by:
    1. Dischinger, Matthias, 2007. "Profit Shifting by Multinationals: Indirect Evidence from European Micro Data," Discussion Papers in Economics 2029, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    2. S. Quantin & S. Raspiller & S. Serravalle, 2009. "Intrafirm trade, taxation and transfer pricing: evidence from French data," Documents de Travail de la DESE - Working Papers of the DESE g2009-07, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, DESE.
    3. Johannes Becker, 2010. "Strategic Trade Policy through the Tax System," CESifo Working Paper Series 3066, CESifo Group Munich.
    4. Giorgia Maffini & Socrates Mokkas, 2008. "Transfer-pricing and Measured Productivity of Multinational Firms," Working Papers 0817, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.

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