IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dbp/wpaper/003.html

Did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Reduce Profit Shifting by US Multinational Companies?

Author

Listed:
  • Javier Garcia-Bernardo

    (Utrecht University)

  • Gabriel Zucman

    (UC Berkeley and EU Tax Observatory)

  • Petr Janský

    (Charles University)

Abstract

The 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act reduced the US corporate tax rate and introduced provisions to curb profit shifting. We combine survey data, tax data, and firm financial statements to study the evolution of the geographical allocation of US firms’ profits after the reform. The share of profits booked abroad by US multinationals fell 3–5 percentage points, driven by repatriations of intellectual property to the US. The share of foreign profits booked in tax havens remained stable around 50% between 2015 and 2020. Changes in the global allocation of profits are small overall, but some firms responded strongly.

Suggested Citation

  • Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Gabriel Zucman & Petr Janský, 2022. "Did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Reduce Profit Shifting by US Multinational Companies?," Working Papers 003, EU Tax Observatory.
    • Handle: RePEc:dbp:wpaper:003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.taxobservatory.eu//www-site/uploads/2022/06/GBJZ2022-1.pdf
    File Function: Full working paper
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michelle Hanlon & Jeffrey L. Hoopes & Joel Slemrod, 2019. "Tax Reform Made Me Do It!," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 33-80.
    2. Katarzyna Anna Bilicka, 2019. "Comparing UK Tax Returns of Foreign Multinationals to Matched Domestic Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2921-2953, August.
    3. Mr. Nigel A Chalk & Mr. Michael Keen & Ms. Victoria J Perry, 2018. "The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: An Appraisal," IMF Working Papers 2018/185, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Li Liu, 2020. "Where Does Multinational Investment Go with Territorial Taxation? Evidence from the United Kingdom," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 325-358, February.
    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. Giulia Aliprandi & Alice Chiocchetti & Manon Francois & Laure Heidmann, 2025. "Shift or Share? Anatomy of Profit Shifting and Distributional Effects on Workers," CESifo Working Paper Series 12202, CESifo.
    2. 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.
    3. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2024. "The consequences of the 2017 US international tax reform: a survey of the evidence," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(4), pages 1158-1178, August.
    4. Garcia-Bernardo, Javier & Janský, Petr, 2024. "Profit shifting of multinational corporations worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    5. Christine L. Dobridge & Patrick Kennedy & Paul Landefeld & Jacob Mortenson, 2023. "The TCJA and Domestic Corporate Tax Rates," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-078, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Michael Overesch & Dirk Schindler & Georg Wamser, 2024. "Design and Consequences of CFC and GILTI Rules: A Review and Potential Lessons for the Global Minimum Tax," CESifo Working Paper Series 11018, CESifo.
    7. Lompo, Miaba Louise & Ouoba, Marie Madeleine, 2022. "How they hide money? An investigation on tax evasion of large corporations and wealthy taxpayers," MPRA Paper 114235, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Chen, Yilan & Lei, Shaohai, 2025. "Tax avoidance opportunity for multinational enterprises: effects of digitalized tax administration in China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Albertus, James F. & Glover, Brent & Levine, Oliver, 2025. "The real and financial effects of internal liquidity: Evidence from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    10. Jonathan S. Hartley & Kevin A. Hassett & Joshua D. Rauh, 2025. "Firm Investment and the User Cost of Capital: New US Corporate Tax Reform Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 40, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Eulaiwi, Baban & Alghamdi, Fatmah Saeed & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Duong, Lien & Taylor, Grantley, 2024. "U.S. multinational corporations' income shifting incentives and share repurchases: Evidence across differential taxation systems," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Katarzyna Bilicka & Michael Devereux & Irem Güçeri, 2023. "Tax-Avoidance Networks and the Push for a “Historic” Global Tax Reform," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 57-108.
    13. Joana Andrade Vicente, . "Arguments for implementing formulary apportionment in the European Union," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    14. Nabavi Pardis & Nordström Martin, 2023. "The Impact Assessment of Implementing a Global Minimum Tax for MNEs in Sweden," Nordic Tax Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2023(1), pages 111-123, December.
    15. Lompo, Miaba Louise & Ouoba, Marie Madeleine, 2022. "How they hide money? An investigation on tax evasion of large corporations and wealthy taxpayers," MPRA Paper 113410, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. De Vito, Antonio & Hillmann, Lisa & Jacob, Martin & Vossebürger, Robert, 2025. "Do personal income taxes affect corporate tax-motivated profit shifting?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2).
    17. Giulia Aliprandi & Gerrit von Zedlitz, 2023. "Benchmarking Country-by-Country Reports," Working Papers halshs-04103852, HAL.
    18. Dyrda, Sebastian & Hong, Guangbin & Steinberg, Joseph B., 2024. "A macroeconomic perspective on taxing multinational enterprises," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    19. Alice Chiocchetti & Manon François & Laure Heidmann & Giulia Aliprandi, 2025. "Shift or Share? Profit Shifting and Workers’ Profit-Sharing," Working Papers 039, EU Tax Observatory.

    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. Dorine Boumans & Clemens Fuest & Carla Krolage & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2020. "Expected effects of the US tax reform on other countries: global and local survey evidence," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1608-1630, December.
    2. Emanuel Kopp & Mr. Daniel Leigh & Susanna Mursula & Suchanan Tambunlertchai, 2019. "U.S. Investment Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017," IMF Working Papers 2019/120, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Qi, Yaxuan & Xing, Jing, 2022. "Real responses to anti-tax avoidance: Evidence from the UK Worldwide Debt Cap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    4. Ruud Mooij & Li Liu, 2020. "At a Cost: The Real Effects of Transfer Pricing Regulations," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(1), pages 268-306, March.
    5. Langenmayr, Dominika & Liu, Li, 2023. "Home or away? Profit shifting with territorial taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    6. Usama Jamal, 2025. "Tax Rules and Capital Reallocation: Real Effects of Anti-Tax Avoidance Policies," Thema Working Papers 2025-16, THEMA (Théorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), CY Cergy-Paris University, ESSEC and CNRS.
    7. Katarzyna Bilicka, 2025. "Labor market consequences of antitax avoidance policies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(2), pages 429-465, April.
    8. Mindy Herzfeld, 2021. "Designing international tax reform: lessons from TCJA," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(5), pages 1163-1187, October.
    9. Muhan Wang & Kezhong Zhang & Sihan Gao, 2024. "Does Information Exchange Affect Cross‐border Tax Avoidance? Evidence from the Common Reporting Standard," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 32(4), pages 179-228, July.
    10. 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.
    11. Harald J. Amberger & Leslie Robinson, 2024. "The initial effect of U.S. tax reform on foreign acquisitions," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 996-1038, June.
    12. Bakke Julia Tropina, 2023. "Firm performance following foreign acquisitions in Norway: Evidence of profit shifting?*," Nordic Tax Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2023(1), pages 1-21, December.
    13. Johannesen, Niels, 2022. "The global minimum tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    14. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Scur, Daniela, 2024. "Organizational capacity and profit shifting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    15. Katarzyna A. Bilicka & André Seidel, 2022. "Measuring Firm Activity from Outer Space," NBER Working Papers 29945, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Garcia-Bernardo, Javier & Janský, Petr, 2024. "Profit shifting of multinational corporations worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    17. Nadia Accoto & Stefano Federico & Giacomo Oddo, 2024. "Trade in services related to intangibles and the profit shifting hypothesis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 70(4), pages 1037-1059, December.
    18. Binglin He & Yukun Sun & Kezhong Zhang, 2025. "The Flaw in the Plan: Information Transparency and International Tax Avoidance Channels," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 1193-1227, September.
    19. Yewei Wu & Bofu Zhang, 2023. "Inquiry Letters and Tax Aggressiveness," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(4), pages 37-65, July.
    20. Julien Martin & Mathieu Parenti & Farid Toubal, 2020. "Corporate Tax Avoidance and Industry Concentration," CESifo Working Paper Series 8469, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

    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:dbp:wpaper:003. 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: Inga Chilashvili (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eutaxfr.html .

    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.