The impact of the Pillar One and Pillar Two proposals on MNE’s investment costs: An analysis using forward-looking effective tax rates, OECD Taxation Working Paper No. 50
By Tibor Hanappi & Ana Cinta González Cabral
This working paper presents the analytical framework used by the Secretariat to estimate the direct effects of the Pillar One and Pillar Two proposals on MNE’s investment costs. The analysis builds on the standard ETR framework and extends it in two important respects. First, ETRs are calculated for an investment performed by an entity belonging to an MNE group and account for the possibility that MNEs use their organisational structure to shift profits to low tax jurisdictions. Second, the model incorporates a stylised version of the tax provisions introduced under Pillar One and Pillar Two. The results, covering over 70 jurisdictions, account for differences in tax bases and rates, and are empirically calibrated to map MNE activities, i.e., the location of their profits, turnover and assets as well as the impact of the proposals. Overall, the results suggest that the Pillar One and Pillar Two proposals would lead to modest increases on global weighted ETRs. This paper feeds into the broader analysis of the investment impacts of the Pillar One and Pillar Two proposals.
Corporate taxation and investment of multinational firms: Evidence from firm-level data, OECD Taxation Working Paper No. 51
By Valentine Millot, Åsa Johansson, Stéphane Sorbe & Sebastien Turban
This paper explores the effect of corporate taxes on the investment of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and whether this effect differs across MNE groups depending on their profitability rate. Firm-level analysis conducted on a cross-country panel of MNE entities confirms the earlier finding that MNE investment in a jurisdiction is negatively affected by effective corporate tax rate increases in that jurisdiction. The analysis also suggests that the tax sensitivity of MNE investment differs across entities belonging to different MNE groups, with a U-shape relationship between tax sensitivity and MNE group profitability. Entities belonging to groups with negative profitability or relatively high profitability rates are found to be relatively less sensitive than those belonging to groups with lower but positive profitability rates. For example, the estimated tax sensitivity of firms in MNE groups with a profitability rate above 10% is found to be nearly half the sensitivity of a firm in an MNE group with a profitability rate between 0% and 10%. This has implications with regard to the tax reform proposals currently under discussion by the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS, as this suggests that highly profitable MNE groups, which are more likely to be impacted by the proposals, may be less sensitive to taxes in their investment behaviour than the typical MNE.
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