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An Examination of Multijurisdictional Corporate Income Taxes Under Formula Apportionment

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  • Roger H. Gordon
  • John D. Wilson

Abstract

This paper examines how corporate taxation of multijurisdictional firms using formula apportionment affects the incentives faced by individual firms and individual states. We find that formula apportionment creates factor price distortions which vary in general among firms within a state, and in such a way as often to put multistate firms at a competitive advantage. Formula apportionment also creates incentives for cross-hauling of output,with production in low tax rate states more profitably sold in hightax rate states, and conversely. Politically, formula apportionment appears to be very unstable --states face an incentive to shift to some other form of taxation. None of these problems exist when a corporate tax uses separate accounting.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger H. Gordon & John D. Wilson, 1984. "An Examination of Multijurisdictional Corporate Income Taxes Under Formula Apportionment," NBER Working Papers 1369, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1369
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Don Fullerton & Roger H. Gordon, 1983. "A Reexamination of Tax Distortions in General Equilibrium Models," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral Simulation Methods in Tax Policy Analysis, pages 369-426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Roger H. Gordon, 1983. "An Optimal Taxation Approach to Fiscal Federalism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(4), pages 567-586.
    3. George R. Zodrow & Peter Mieszkowski, 2019. "Pigou, Tiebout, Property Taxation, and the Underprovision of Local Public Goods," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 17, pages 525-542, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Wilson, John D., 1986. "A theory of interregional tax competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 296-315, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Douglas Shackelford & Joel Slemrod, 1998. "The Revenue Consequences of Using Formula Apportionment to Calculate U.S. and Foreign-Source Income: A Firm-Level Analysis," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 5(1), pages 41-59, February.

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