Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2016

Abstract

A large puzzle underlies the recent G20 and OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. If the scope of BEPS is as broad as the reports suggest, why are corporate tax revenues in the OECD so robust?

The final OECD report on BEPS action 11 suggest that BEPS activities result in between $100 and $240 billion in annual lost revenue from corporate income taxes (CIT) on a global basis. The wide spread between these two numbers indicates the significant uncertainty involved. But even the higher number represents a relatively small portion of total global CIT revenues, since it is only about half of the annual CIT revenue of the US alone. Moreover, overall OECD revenue data do not indicate that BEPS has had a significant impact on CIT revenue, since those have held steady at 8-10% of total revenue since the 1980s (i.e., before BEPS became a significant issue).

Comments

© 2016 R. S. Avi-Yonah. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.


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