"Home Sweet Home" versus International Tax Planning: Where Do Multinational Firms Hold their U.S. Trademarks?

Jost H. Heckemeyer, Pia Olligs and Michael Overesch

National Tax Journal, 2018, vol. 71, issue 3, 485-520

Abstract: This study analyzes whether tax incentives affect the geographical allocation of U.S. trademark rights within large multinational enterprises. Considering the S&P 500 firms, we find a strong home country concentration of U.S. trademark ownership. Our results suggest that offshore ownership of trademarks is mainly motivated by foreign activities rather than tax considerations. An analysis of the location choice reveals a significant negative impact of host-country taxes but only if controlled-foreign-company legislation does not apply. Companies active in industries that are known for producing mobile income tend to hold more trademarks offshore. In particular, trademarks of software firms and drugmakers are overrepresented in tax havens. European multinationals share similar location preferences.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2018.3.03 (text/html)
Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ntj:journl:v:71:y:2018:i:3:p:485-520

Access Statistics for this article

National Tax Journal is currently edited by Stacy Dickert-Conlin and William M. Gentry

More articles in National Tax Journal from National Tax Association, National Tax Journal Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The University of Chicago Press ().