2016年-IMF国际货币组织全球_US_Corporate_Income_Tax_Reform_and_its_Spillovers_47页_1mb

U.S. Corporate Income Tax Reform and its Spillovers Summary

Core Content

This working paper by Kimberly Clausing, Edward Kleinbard, and Thornton Matheson analyzes the distortions in the U.S. corporate income tax (CIT) system, particularly its international implications, and proposes both fundamental and incremental tax reforms. The paper highlights the challenges posed by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions and the need for international tax coordination.

Main Distortions of the U.S. CIT Regime

• High Statutory Tax Rate: The U.S. CIT rate of 35% is the highest in the G-7 and above the OECD average of 23%.
• Inbound Investment Vulnerability: The U.S. system is prone to income stripping due to its high rate and weak thin capitalization rules.
• Debt Bias: The deductibility of interest while dividends are not creates a strong preference for debt financing.
• Tax Expenditures: These significantly reduce CIT revenues, with the largest expenditures being deferral of foreign active income and accelerated depreciation.
• Quasi-Territorial Regime: The U.S. CIT, with deferral and cross-crediting rules, functions as a quasi-territorial system, leading to large accumulations of unrepatriated earnings.

Key Reforms Proposed

Fundamental Reform

• Corporate-Level Rent Tax: A shift from taxing corporate income to taxing economic rents (such as cash flow tax, allowance for corporate capital (ACC), or allowance for corporate equity (ACE)) could promote investment efficiency and reduce the incentive for profit shifting.
• Global Efficiency: A worldwide rent tax system would equalize pre-tax returns to capital across jurisdictions, promoting a more efficient allocation of investment.
• Withholding Tax: To avoid significant revenue loss, the normal return to capital could be taxed at the investor level via a corporate-level withholding tax.

Incremental Reform

• Revenue-Neutral: This reform aims to reduce tax expenditures, lower the CIT rate to 25-28%, and impose a minimum rent tax on foreign earnings.
• Implementation of Minimum Tax: A strong minimum tax could offset the revenue loss from a U.S. rate cut for most countries with effective tax rates above 15%.
• CFC Rules: The U.S. controlled foreign corporation (CFC) rules, known as "Subpart F", currently tax certain offshore income of foreign subsidiaries owned by U.S. taxpayers. These rules are part of the worldwide tax regime but may be reformed to align with a more neutral system.

Empirical Analysis of Incremental Reform

• Impact on Foreign Revenues: A U.S. rate cut would likely reduce tax revenues in other countries.
• Minimum Tax Offset: However, the implementation of a strong minimum tax could more than offset this effect for countries with effective tax rates above 15%.
• Data Insights: The paper references data showing that in 2012, U.S.-headquartered MNEs reported almost 60% of their foreign earnings in jurisdictions with effective tax rates below 5%.
• Revenue Estimates: Table 2 provides revenue estimates for selected major business tax expenditures over the 10-year budget window, showing the significant impact of these expenditures on CIT revenues.

OECD BEPS Project Outcomes

• Minimum Standards: The BEPS project has introduced minimum standards in areas such as treaty abuse, transfer pricing, and dispute resolution.
• Guidance on Taxation: It provides guidance on the definition of a permanent establishment, transfer pricing, and hybrid mismatch.
• Cross-Border Cooperation: The BEPS project also promotes cross-border cooperation, including the development of toolkits to apply these outcomes to developing countries.

Taxation and Investment

• Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR): This measures the tax burden on marginal investments and is influenced by statutory rates, depreciation allowances, and investment credits.
• Average Effective Tax Rate (AETR): This measures the tax burden on discrete investment projects and is a key determinant in location decisions for MNEs.
• Debt vs. Equity Financing: The U.S. system favors debt financing due to the tax deductibility of interest, while dividends are not deductible. This creates a "debt bias" that may affect economic stability and growth.

Conclusion

The paper emphasizes the need for a more efficient and neutral international tax system, advocating for a shift towards a rent tax model and the implementation of a minimum tax to counteract the negative effects of profit shifting. It also highlights the importance of addressing the structural issues within the U.S. CIT regime, such as tax expenditures and the quasi-territorial nature of the system, to promote a fair and efficient tax environment for both domestic and international investment.