Profit Shifting of Multinational Corporations Worldwide

Profit Shifting of Multinational Corporations Worldwide

Author: Javier Garcia-Bernardo
Petr Janský
Published in: IES Working Papers 33/2023
Keywords: multinational corporation, corporate taxation, profit shifting, effective tax rate, country-by-country reporting, global development
JEL Codes: F23, H25, H26, H32
Suggested citation: Garcia-Bernardo J., Janský P. (2023): " Profit Shifting of Multinational Corporations Worldwide" IES Working Papers 33/2023. IES FSV. Charles University.
Abstract:

We exploit the new country-by-country reporting data of multinational corporations, with unparalleled country coverage, to reveal the distributional consequences of profit shifting. We estimate that multinational corporations worldwide shifted over $850 billion in profits in 2017, primarily to countries with effective tax rates below 10%. Countries with lower incomes lose a larger share of their total tax revenue due to profit shifting. We further show that a logarithmic function is better suited for capturing the non-linear relationship between profits and tax rates than linear or quadratic functions. Our findings highlight effective tax rates’ importance for profit shifting and tax reforms.

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