Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion in Multinational Companies:Interactions and Evidence

最迟自1985年以来，在全世界真实的外国直接投资流入量爆炸性增长的推动下，出现了大型跨国公司。这些公司在全球贸易中占有相当大的份额，其利润是国家公司税基的重要组成部分。然而，由于跨国公司在几个国家都有业务，它们可以通过在国际子公司之间战略性地转移利润和亏损来优化其综合税收负担。因此，这种国际存在使人们能够利用不同国家税法中的税收优惠。从经验上看，滥用转让定价和公司内部贷款的资本弱化这两种主要机制非常重要，造成国家公司税收的大量损失。令人惊讶的是，事实证明（非法）转移定价比资本弱化更为普遍。这一事实在理论文献中缺乏一个普遍接受的、全面的解释。因此，本项目的目的是加深对资本弱化的法律的避税与转移定价的非法逃税之间相互作用的理论理解，并分析其对税率变化的比较静态效应的影响。此外，隐藏逃税所需的隐藏成本的功能规范，以及如果发现逃税，预期的罚款，将分别进行更详细的审查，因为相应的功能形式应该对结果产生很大的影响。此外，还将补充关于避税的经验文献。一个新的假设进行了测试，解释的负效应，少数股权对内部债务（公司内部贷款）的正成本外部性，这有利于少数股东。为此，将使用德国中央银行（德意志联邦银行）的MiDi数据库。

Driven by an explosive growth of worldwide real inflows of foreign direct investments at the latest since 1985, large multinational companies (MNCs) emerged. These companies hold a considerable share in worldwide trade and their profits are important parts of national corporate tax bases. However, due to being present in several countries, the MNCs can optimize their consolidated tax burden by strategically shifting profits and losses among international affiliates. Thus, this international presence allows utilizing tax benefits in different national tax codes. Empirically, the two main mechanisms, abusive transfer-pricing and thin-capitalization by intra-company loans, are highly significant and they create substantial losses in national corporate tax revenues. Surprisingly, it turns also out that (illegal) transfer-pricing is way more prevalent than thin-capitalization. This fact lacks a generally accepted, comprehensive explanation in the theoretical literature.Therefore, the aim of the present project is to deepen the theoretical understanding of the interaction between legal tax avoidance by thin-capitalization and illegal tax evasion by transfer-pricing and to analyze its implications for the comparative-static effects of tax-rate changes. Additionally, the functional specification of concealment costs, necessary to hide tax evasion, and expected fines, if evasion is detected, respectively, will be examined in closer detail, as the respective functional form should have strong impacts on the results. Furthermore, the empirical literature on tax avoidance will be complemented. A new hypothesis is tested, explaining the negative effect of minority ownership on internal debt (intra-company loans) by a positive cost externality, which benefits minority shareholders. For this purpose, the MiDi data base of the German central bank (Deutsche Bundesbank) will be used.