Taxing across borders: tracking personal wealth and corporate profits

Gabriel Zucman

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article attempts to estimate the magnitude of corporate tax avoidance and personal tax evasion through offshore tax havens. US corporations book 20 percent of their profits in tax havens, a tenfold increase since the 1980; their effective tax rate has declined from 30 to 20 percent over the last 15 years, and about two-thirds of this decline can be attributed to increased international tax avoidance. Globally, 8 percent of the world's personal financial wealth is held offshore, costing more than $200 billion to governments every year. Despite ambitious policy initiatives, profit shifting to tax havens and offshore wealth are rising. I discuss the recent proposals made to address these issues, and I argue that the main objective should be to create a world financial registry.

JEL-codes: D31 H25 H26 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (237)

Published in Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2014, 28(4), pp. 121-148. ISSN: 0895-3309

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66119/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Taxing across Borders: Tracking Personal Wealth and Corporate Profits (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:66119

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