IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v47y2009i5p1283-1316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using Financial Accounting Data to Examine the Effect of Foreign Operations Located in Tax Havens and Other Countries on U.S. Multinational Firms' Tax Rates

Author

Listed:
  • SCOTT D. DYRENG
  • BRADLEY P. LINDSEY

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect tax havens and other foreign jurisdictions have on the income tax rates of multinational firms based in the United States. We develop a new regression methodology using financial accounting data to estimate the average worldwide, federal, and foreign tax rates on worldwide, federal, and foreign pretax book income for a large sample of U.S. firms with and without tax haven operations. We find that on average U.S. firms that disclosed material operations in at least one tax haven country have a worldwide tax burden on worldwide income that is approximately 1.5 percentage points lower than firms without operations in at least one tax haven country. Our results also show that U.S. firms face a 4.4% current federal tax rate on foreign income whether or not they have tax haven operations. Finally, we find that U.S. firms with operations in some tax haven countries have higher federal tax rates on foreign income than other firms. This result suggests that in some cases, tax haven operations may increase U.S. tax collections at the expense of foreign country tax collections.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott D. Dyreng & Bradley P. Lindsey, 2009. "Using Financial Accounting Data to Examine the Effect of Foreign Operations Located in Tax Havens and Other Countries on U.S. Multinational Firms' Tax Rates," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5), pages 1283-1316, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:47:y:2009:i:5:p:1283-1316
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2009.00346.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2009.00346.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-679X.2009.00346.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosanne Altshuler & T. Scott Newlon & Joel Slemrod, 1993. "The Effects of U.S. Tax Policy on the Income Repatriation Patterns of U. S . Multinational Corporations," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in International Taxation, pages 77-116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Harry Grubert & John Mutti, 1995. "Taxing multinationals in a world with portfolio flows and R&D: Is capital export neutrality obsolete?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(3), pages 439-457, October.
    3. Zimmerman, Jerold L., 1983. "Taxes and firm size," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 119-149, April.
    4. Julie Collins & Douglas Shackelford, 1995. "Corporate domicile and average effective tax rates: The cases of Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(1), pages 55-83, February.
    5. Jennifer Blouin & Linda Krull, 2009. "Bringing It Home: A Study of the Incentives Surrounding the Repatriation of Foreign Earnings Under the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 1027-1059, September.
    6. Plesko, George A., 2003. "An evaluation of alternative measures of corporate tax rates," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 201-226, June.
    7. Shackelford, Douglas A. & Shevlin, Terry, 2001. "Empirical tax research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 321-387, September.
    8. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    9. Giovannini, Alberto & Hubbard, R. Glenn & Slemrod, Joel (ed.), 1993. "Studies in International Taxation," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226297019, December.
    10. Dharmapala, Dhammika & Hines Jr., James R., 2009. "Which countries become tax havens?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1058-1068, October.
    11. Julie H. Collins & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2003. "Do US Multinationals Face Different Tax Burdens than Do Other Companies?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, pages 141-168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Fritz Foley, C. & Hartzell, Jay C. & Titman, Sheridan & Twite, Garry, 2007. "Why do firms hold so much cash? A tax-based explanation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 579-607, December.
    13. Hanlon, Michelle & Laplante, Stacie Kelley & Shevlin, Terry, 2005. "Evidence for the Possible Information Loss of Conforming Book Income and Taxable Income," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 407-442, October.
    14. Hartman, David G., 1985. "Tax policy and foreign direct investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 107-121, February.
    15. James R. Hines Jr., 2005. "Do Tax Havens Flourish?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 19, pages 65-100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Seida, Jim A. & Wempe, William F., 2004. "Effective Tax Rate Changes and Earnings Stripping Following Corporate Inversion," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(4), pages 805-828, December.
    17. Desai, Mihir A. & Hines, James R. Jr., 2002. "Expectations and Expatriations: Tracing the Causes and Consequences of Corporate Inversions," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(3), pages 409-440, September.
    18. Hanlon, Michelle, 2003. "What Can We Infer About a Firm’s Taxable Income From Its Financial Statements?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(4), pages 831-863, December.
    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. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    2. John R. Graham & Michelle Hanlon & Terry Shevlin, 2011. "Real Effects of Accounting Rules: Evidence from Multinational Firms’ Investment Location and Profit Repatriation Decisions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 137-185, March.
    3. Kevin S. Markle & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2011. "Cross-Country Comparisons of Corporate Income Taxes," NBER Working Papers 16839, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Taylor, Grantley & Richardson, Grant, 2012. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance Practices: Evidence from Australian Firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 469-496.
    5. Jaafar, Aziz & Thornton, John, 2015. "Tax Havens and Effective Tax Rates: An Analysis of Private versus Public European Firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 435-457.
    6. Kenneth J. Klassen & Stacie K. Laplante, 2012. "Are U.S. Multinational Corporations Becoming More Aggressive Income Shifters?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1245-1285, December.
    7. Kevin S. Markle & Douglas Shackelford, 2009. "Do Multinationals or Domestic Firms Face Higher Effective Tax Rates?," NBER Working Papers 15091, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Dong, Qi Flora & Cao, Yiting & Zhao, Xin & Deshmukh, Ashutosh, 2019. "Responses of US multinational firms to a temporary repatriation tax holiday: A literature review and synthesis," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 108-123.
    9. Hope, Ole-Kristian & Ma, Mark (Shuai) & Thomas, Wayne B., 2013. "Tax avoidance and geographic earnings disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 170-189.
    10. Julie H. Collins & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2003. "Do US Multinationals Face Different Tax Burdens than Do Other Companies?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, pages 141-168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Kooyul Jung & Boyoung Kim & Byungmo Kim, 2009. "Tax Motivated Income Shifting and Korean Business Groups (Chaebol)," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5‐6), pages 552-586, June.
    12. Gordon, Roger H. & Hines, James Jr, 2002. "International taxation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 28, pages 1935-1995, Elsevier.
    13. Arnt Ove Hopland & Petro Lisowsky & Mohammed Mardan & Dirk Schindler, 2014. "Income Shifting under Losses," CESifo Working Paper Series 5130, CESifo.
    14. Beyer, Brooke & Downes, Jimmy & Rapley, Eric T., 2017. "Internal capital market inefficiencies, shareholder payout, and abnormal leverage," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 39-57.
    15. Jeffrey L. Coles & Elena Patel & Nathan Seegert & Matthew Smith, 2022. "How Do Firms Respond to Corporate Taxes?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 965-1006, June.
    16. Kooyul Jung & Boyoung Kim & Byungmo Kim, 2009. "Tax Motivated Income Shifting and Korean Business Groups (Chaebol)," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5-6), pages 552-586.
    17. 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.
    18. Abdul Wahab, Nor Shaipah & Holland, Kevin, 2012. "Tax planning, corporate governance and equity value," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 111-124.
    19. T. J. Atwood & Christina Lewellen, 2019. "The Complementarity between Tax Avoidance and Manager Diversion: Evidence from Tax Haven Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 259-294, March.
    20. Markle, Kevin S. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 2012. "Cross-Country Comparisons of Corporate Income Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(3), pages 493-527, September.

    More about this item

    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:bla:joares:v:47:y:2009:i:5:p:1283-1316. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-8456 .

    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.