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

最迟自1985年以来，在全球实际外国直接投资流入爆炸性增长的推动下，出现了大型跨国公司(MNC)。这些公司在全球贸易中占有相当大的份额，它们的利润是各国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，它们可以通过战略性地在国际附属公司之间转移损益来优化其综合税负。因此，这种国际存在允许在不同的国家税法中利用税收优惠。从经验上看，滥用转让定价和公司内部贷款资本化这两种主要机制非常重要，它们造成了国家公司税收的大量损失。令人惊讶的是，事实也证明，(非法的)转让定价比稀缺资本更为普遍。这一事实在理论文献中缺乏普遍接受的、全面的解释，因此，本项目的目的是深化对稀缺资本合法避税与非法转移定价避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，将分别更详细地审查隐藏逃税所需的隐瞒费用的功能规格，以及如果发现逃税，预计将被罚款，因为各自的功能形式应该对结果有很大影响。此外，有关避税的实证文献将得到补充。检验了一个新的假设，解释了少数股权对内部债务(公司内部贷款)的负面影响，这是通过有利于少数股东的正成本外部性来解释的。为此，将使用德国央行(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.