Income Shifting in U.S. Multinational Corporations

David Harris, Randall Morck, Joel Slemrod and Bernard Yeung

No 3924, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: It is often claimed that multinational firms avoid taxes by shifting income from high-tax to low-tax countries. Using a five year panel of data for two hundred large U.S. manufacturing firms, we find that U.S. tax liability, as a fraction either of U.S. sales or U.S. assets, is related to the location of foreign subsidiaries in a way that is consistent with tax-motivated income shifting. Having a subsidiary in a tax haven, Ireland, or one of the "four dragon" Asian countries - all characterized by low tax rates - is associated with lower U.S. tax ratios. Having a subsidiary in a high-tax region is associated with higher U.S. tax ratios. These results suggest that U.S. manufacturing companies shift income out of high-tax countries into the U.S., and from the U.S. to low-tax countries. Such behavior certainly lowers worldwide tax liabilities for larger U.S. manufacturing companies and appears to significantly lower their U.S. tax liabilities as well.

Date: 1991-12
Note: PE
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Published as Studies in Internatioanl Taxationedited by Alberto Giovannini, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Joel Slemrod University of Chicago Press: May 1993
Published as Income Shifting in U.S. Multinational Corporations , David Harris, Randall Morck, Joel B. Slemrod. in Studies in International Taxation , Giovannini, Hubbard, and Slemrod. 1993

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Related works:
Chapter: Income Shifting in U.S. Multinational Corporations (1993)
Working Paper: Income Shifting in U.S. Multinational Corporations (1991)
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