IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/intere/v56y2021i3d10.1007_s10272-021-0974-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Country-by-Country Reporting: A Step Towards Unitary Taxation?

Author

Listed:
  • Miguel Viegas

    (Universidade of Aveiro)

  • António Dias

    (Universidade of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro)

Abstract

Multinational companies are now obliged to deliver an annual report to the tax authorities with information disaggregated by country (country-by-country reporting) in order to show where the assets and workers are allocated, how profits are distributed and to whom taxes are paid. Unfortunately, these reports are not made public in the European Union, thus preventing public scrutiny about the strategies used by multinational companies to displace profits to tax havens. This article applies the Unitary Taxation regime proposed by the European Commission to US multinational companies. The results confirm a strong bias among the profits distribution towards countries with lower corporate tax rates. Likewise, they confirm the capacity of the Unitary Taxation to promote a fairer distribution of tax revenues. These results can be a good contribution to the current Portuguese presidency of the European Union, which managed to gather important support to move forward with the European public country-by-country reporting directive.

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel Viegas & António Dias, 2021. "Country-by-Country Reporting: A Step Towards Unitary Taxation?," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 56(3), pages 167-173, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:intere:v:56:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10272-021-0974-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10272-021-0974-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10272-021-0974-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10272-021-0974-9?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Petr Janský & Thomas Tørsløv, 2021. "Multinational corporations and tax havens: evidence from country-by-country reporting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(6), pages 1519-1561, December.
    2. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Petr Janský & Thomas Tørsløv, 2021. "Multinational corporations and tax havens: evidence from country-by-country reporting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(6), pages 1519-1561, December.
    3. Sara L. McGaughey & Pascalis Raimondos, 2019. "Shifting MNE taxation from national to global profits: A radical reform long overdue," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1668-1683, December.
    4. Leon Bettendorf & Michael P. Devereux & Albert Van Der Horst & Simon Loretz & Ruud A. de Mooij, 2010. "Corporate tax harmonization in the EU [Taxing corporate income]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 25(63), pages 537-590.
    5. Antony Ting & Sidney J. Gray, 2019. "The rise of the digital economy: Rethinking the taxation of multinational enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1656-1667, 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. Sónia Cabral & Joana Garcia & Raquel Miranda & Susana Peralta & João Pereira dos Santos, 2024. "Treasure Islands, Real Jobs? Workers and Anti-Avoidance Policies in a Tax Paradise," Working Papers w202416, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    2. 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.
    3. Garcia-Bernardo, Javier & Janský, Petr, 2024. "Profit shifting of multinational corporations worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Müller, Raphael & Spengel, Christoph & Vay, Heiko, 2020. "On the determinants and effects of corporate tax transparency: Review of an emerging literature," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-063, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Petr Janský & Thomas Tørsløv, 2021. "Multinational corporations and tax havens: evidence from country-by-country reporting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(6), pages 1519-1561, December.
    6. Murphy Richard & Janský Petr & Shah Atul, 2019. "BEPS Policy Failure—The Case of EU Country-By-Country Reporting," Nordic Tax Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2019(1), pages 63-86, January.
    7. Guttorm Schjelderup & Frank Stähler, 2024. "The economics of the global minimum tax," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(4), pages 935-952, August.
    8. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Petr Janský & Thomas Tørsløv, 2023. "Effective tax rates of multinational corporations: Country-level estimates," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(11), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Evgeniya Dubinina & Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Petr Janský, 2024. "The excess profits during COVID-19 and their tax revenue potential," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1001-1036, November.
    10. Alain Verbeke & Hadi Fariborzi, 2019. "Celebrating 50 Years of JIBS: Anniversary Issue and Medal Awardees," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1441-1447, December.
    11. Dutt, Verena & Spengel, Christoph & Vay, Heiko, 2021. "Der EU-Vorschlag zum Country-by-Country Reporting im Internet: Kosten, Nutzen, Konsequenzen," Studien, Stiftung Familienunternehmen / Foundation for Family Businesses, number 250010, March.
    12. Wu, Yan & Yang, Yong & Mickiewicz, Tomasz, 2023. "Corruption, the digital sectors, and the profitability of foreign subsidiaries in emerging markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Olbert, Marcel & Spengel, Christoph & Weck, Stefan, 2023. "Multinational firms in tax havens: Corporate motives, regulatory countermeasures, and recent statistics," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-036, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Yahaya, Mohammed Baba & Oon, Elaine Yen Nee & Jusoh, Ruzita, 2024. "CEO Duality and Bank Tax Avoidance: The Moderating Role of Risk Committees - An International Evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 74(1), pages 73-104.
    15. Petr Prochazka & Iveta Cerna, 2022. "Reinvestment and effective corporate income tax rates in V4 countries," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 17(3), pages 581-605, September.
    16. Tsang, Eric W.K. & Colpan, Asli M., 2025. "Reconciling the tension between contextualization and generalization in qualitative international business research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2).
    17. Joana Andrade Vicente, . "Arguments for implementing formulary apportionment in the European Union," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    18. Aleksi Eerola & Arjen H. L. Slangen, 2022. "A Review of International Management Research on Corporate Taxation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(5), pages 643-680, October.
    19. Felix Hugger, 2025. "Regulatory avoidance responses to private Country-by-Country Reporting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(1), pages 271-309, February.
    20. Bruno Casella & Baptiste Souillard, . "A new framework to assess the fiscal impact of a global minimum tax on FDI," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

    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:spr:intere:v:56:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10272-021-0974-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.