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The Response of Firms to Eligibility Thresholds: Evidence from the Japanese Value-Added Tax

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  • Kazuki Onji

Abstract

It is common to define benefit eligibility for small business policies by restrictions on the fi rm size. This paper investigates the incentives for a large fi rm to masquerade as many small firms by separately incorporating business segments, focusing on the case of the Japanese value-added tax. The paper fi nds that the masquerading was pervasive and took place quickly after the introduction of tax incentives. Tax avoidance caused 3.4 per cent of the overall revenue drain in 1990, thus reducing horizontal equity, but the effi ciency consequence would not have been severe. This study suggests that the masquerading by firms may be commonplace in other settings.

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  • Kazuki Onji, 2008. "The Response of Firms to Eligibility Thresholds: Evidence from the Japanese Value-Added Tax," Asia Pacific Economic Papers 370, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:csg:ajrcau:370
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian EBEKE & Mario MANSOUR & Grégoire ROTA-GRAZIOSI, 2016. "The Power to Tax in Sub-Saharan Africa: LTUs, VATs, and SARAs," Working Papers P154, FERDI.
    2. Asatryan, Zareh & Peichl, Andreas, 2016. "Responses of firms to tax, administrative and accounting rules: Evidence from Armenia," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-065, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
    3. repec:eee:chieco:v:46:y:2017:i:s:p:s17-s34 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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.
    5. Onji, Kazuki, 2009. "The response of firms to eligibility thresholds: Evidence from the Japanese value-added tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 766-775, June.
    6. Jonathan Goyette, 2012. "Optimal tax threshold: the consequences on efficiency of official vs. effective enforcement," Cahiers de recherche 12-07, Departement d'Economique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    7. Paul E. Carrillo & M. Shahe Emran & Anita Rivadeneira, 2011. "Do Cheaters Bunch Together? Profit Taxes, Withholding Rates and Tax Evasion," Working Papers 2011-03, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    8. HOSONO Kaoru & HOTEI Masaki & MIYAKAWA Daisuke, 2017. "Tax Avoidance by Capital Reduction: Evidence from corporate tax reform in Japan," Discussion papers 17050, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    9. K.V. Ramaswamy, 2016. "Size dependent tax incentives, threshold effects and horizontal subcontracting in Indian manufacturing: Evidence from factory and firm-level panel data sets," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2016-007, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    10. Li Liu & Benjamin Lockwood, 2015. "VAT Notches," CESifo Working Paper Series 5371, CESifo Group Munich.
    11. Almunia, Miguel & Lopez-Rodriguez, David, 2015. "Under the Radar: The Effects of Monitoring Firms on Tax Compliance," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1070, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    12. Miriam Bruhn & Jan Loeprick, 2016. "Small business tax policy and informality: evidence from Georgia," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 834-853, October.
    13. Antonis Adam & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Thomas Moutos, 2015. "Labour Market Regulation, Fiscal Consolidation, and the Success of Current Account Adjustments," DEOS Working Papers 1517, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    14. Miguel Almunia & David López-Rodríguez, 2014. "Heterogeneous responses to effective tax enforcement: evidence from Spanish firms," Working Papers 1419, Banco de España;Working Papers Homepage.
    15. Rauhanen, Timo & Harju, Jarkko & Matikka, Tuomas, 2016. "The effects of size-based regulation on small firms: evidence from VAT threshold," Working Papers 75, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Ravi Kanbur & Michael Keen, 2014. "Thresholds, informality, and partitions of compliance," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 536-559, August.
    17. Onji, Kazuki, 2014. "The efficiency consequence of a political compromise in the Japanese tax reform of 1989," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 54-64.
    18. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "The Missing "Missing Middle"," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 89-108, Summer.
    19. Casey Mulligan, 2015. "Fiscal policies and the prices of labor: a comparison of the U.K. and U.S," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, December.
    20. Bergner, Sören Martin & Bräutigam, Rainer & Evers, Maria Theresia & Spengel, Christoph, 2017. "The use of SME tax incentives in the European Union," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-006, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
    21. Pranesh Debnath, 2016. "Implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India and its Control over the Tax Collection," Journal of Commerce and Trade, Society for Advanced Management Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 28-35, April.
    22. Claudio Agostini & Eduardo Engel & Andrea Repetto & Damian Vergara, 2017. "Individual Tax Planning and Small Business Creation: Evidence on the Impact of Special Tax Regimes in Chile," Working Papers wp_054, Adolfo Ibáñez University, School of Government.

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    JEL classification:

    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

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