IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ers/ijfirm/v11y2021i1p50-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax Αvoidance and Transfer Pricing: A VECM Regression Model

Author

Listed:
  • N. Eriotis
  • S. Missiakoulis
  • I. Ntokas
  • M. Tzavaras
  • D. Vasiliou
  • E. Thalassinos

Abstract

Purpose: The study examines the tax incentives related to pricing decisions between affiliated companies which are tax residents of Greece and focuses on the pricing behavior of intra-group transactions among related parties. Design/methodology/approach: In the context of the empirical analysis, a panel data regression analysis was performed, using a vector error correction model (VECM) with two lags. The data used in the analysis were retrieved from the AMADEUS (Analyze MAjor Databases from EUropean Sources) Tp-Catalyst (TP 96, March 2018 edition) database and consists of 2,131 companies from most Greek economy sectors, of which 971 are independent and 1,160 are affiliated with other companies. The total sample consists of 17,048 observations, of which 7,768 refer to independent companies and 9,280 to affiliated companies. The research span is from 2010 to 2017 and a two-lag VECM regression model was implemented. Findings: The results of the study are generally in compliance with the international literature. According to the study, affiliated companies appear to have lower profit margins, lower tax burden and a lower Berry ratio than independent companies. Practical implications: The study elaborates on the positive effects of the new Income Tax Code and the new Tax Procedure Code, according to which companies operating in Greece and conducting intra-group transactions, are obliged to document such transactions in the context of a price documentation file. Originality value: The empirical research of the present paper is unprecedented in Greece. The size of the sample in terms of number of companies, number of available ratios and time depth, allowed the analysis through a VECM model to examine the possible use of transfer pricing by affiliated companies to decrease their tax burden. A similar lagged model of autoregressive vectors has not been identified in the relevant literature. The results provide the authorities a benchmark for future audits, since indicate that the manipulation is significant both in short, as well as in a long-term time frame. The use of a VECM model with two lags revealed that the manipulation is not limited within one financial year and the authorities should inspect data from a wider time range when conducting their audits.

Suggested Citation

  • N. Eriotis & S. Missiakoulis & I. Ntokas & M. Tzavaras & D. Vasiliou & E. Thalassinos, 2021. "Tax Αvoidance and Transfer Pricing: A VECM Regression Model," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 11(1), pages 50-67.
    • Handle: RePEc:ers:ijfirm:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:50-67
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journalfirm.com/journal/249/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Conover, Teresa L. & Nichols, Nancy B., 2000. "A Further Examination of Income Shifting Through Transfer Pricing Considering Firm Size and/or Distress," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 189-211, July.
    2. John Mutti & Harry Grubert, 2009. "The Effect of Taxes on Royalties and the Migration of Intangible Assets Abroad," NBER Chapters, in: International Trade in Services and Intangibles in the Era of Globalization, pages 111-137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Gramlich, J.D.Jeffrey D. & Limpaphayom, Piman & Ghon Rhee, S., 2004. "Taxes, keiretsu affiliation, and income shifting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 203-228, June.
    4. Ronan Merle & Bakr Al-Gamrh & Tanveer Ahsan, 2019. "Tax havens and transfer pricing intensity: Evidence from the French CAC-40 listed firms," Post-Print hal-02332055, HAL.
    5. Gao, Lu & Zhao, Xuan, 2015. "Determining intra-company transfer pricing for multinational corporations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 340-350.
    6. Ronan Merle & Bakr Al-Gamrh & Tanveer Ahsan, 2019. "Tax havens and transfer pricing intensity: Evidence from the French CAC-40 listed firms," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 1647918-164, January.
    7. James R. Hines & Eric M. Rice, 1994. "Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 149-182.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Theodoros Kounadeas, 2023. "The Effectiveness of Digital Payments in Tackling Tax Evasion in Greece," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 3-21.

    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. Arnt Ove Hopland & Petro Lisowsky & Mohammed Mardan & Dirk Schindler, 2014. "Income Shifting under Losses," CESifo Working Paper Series 5130, CESifo.
    2. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama, 2016. "The determinants of tax haven FDI," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 237-250.
    3. Onji Kazuki & Vera David, 2010. "Tax Law Asymmetries and Income Shifting: Evidence from Japanese Capital Keiretsu," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-35, January.
    4. Griffith, Rachel & Miller, Helen & O'Connell, Martin, 2014. "Ownership of intellectual property and corporate taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 12-23.
    5. Argilés-Bosch, Josep M. & Somoza, Antonio & Ravenda, Diego & García-Blandón, Josep, 2020. "An empirical examination of the influence of e-commerce on tax avoidance in Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    6. James Nebus, 2019. "Will tax reforms alone solve the tax avoidance and tax haven problems?," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(3), pages 258-271, September.
    7. Frank Barry, 2019. "Aggressive Tax Planning Practices and Inward-FDI Implications for Ireland of the New US Corporate Tax Regime," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 325-340.
    8. Richardson, Grant & Taylor, Grantley & Lanis, Roman, 2013. "Determinants of transfer pricing aggressiveness: Empirical evidence from Australian firms," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 136-150.
    9. Kevin S Markle, 2012. "A Comparison of the Tax-motivated Income Shifting of Multinationals in Territorial and Worldwide Countries," Working Papers 1206, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    10. Ji Lee, Ye & Seon Yoo, Ji, 2023. "Loss expectation and income shifting," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2).
    11. Menkhoff, Lukas & Miethe, Jakob, 2019. "Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 176, pages 53-78.
    12. 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.
    13. Ji Seon Yoo & Ye Ji Lee, 2019. "National Culture and Tax Avoidance of Multinational Corporations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-28, December.
    14. Daniel Anarfi & Danuše Nerudová, 2018. "Profit Shifting and the Tax Response of Multinational Banks in Eastern Europe," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 66(3), pages 729-736.
    15. Jennifer Blouin & Harry Huizinga & Luc Laeven & Gaëtan Nicodème, 2013. "Thin capitalization rules and multinational firm capital structure," Working Papers 1323, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    16. Céline Azemar & Grégory Corcos & Andrew Delios, 2006. "Taxation and the international strategy of Japanese multinational enterprises," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00590421, HAL.
    17. Niels Johannesen & Thomas Tørsløv & Ludvig Wier, 2016. "Are less developed countries more exposed to multinational tax avoidance? Method and evidence from micro-data," WIDER Working Paper Series 010, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Fuest, Clemens & Spengel, Christoph & Finke, Katharina & Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Nusser, Hannah, 2013. "Profit shifting and 'aggressive' tax planning by multinational firms: Issues and options for reform," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-078, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Fuest, Clemens & Hugger, Felix & Neumeier, Florian, 2022. "Corporate profit shifting and the role of tax havens: Evidence from German country-by-country reporting data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 454-477.
    20. Matthias Krapf & David Staubli, 2020. "The Corporate Elasticity of Taxable Income: Event Study Evidence from Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 8715, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transfer pricing; tax evasion; tax administration; tax audits; Greece; affiliated companies; independent companies; VECM model.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

    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:ers:ijfirm:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:50-67. 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: Marios Agiomavritis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journalfirm.com/ .

    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.