International Corporate Taxation and Multinational Firm Structures

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thiess Büttner; Professor Dr. Michael Overesch; Professor Dr. Ulrich Schreiber
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2010 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 171282532

This research project sheds light on the impact of international corporate taxation on the development of multinational group structures and the effect of tax-optimized group structures on real and financial corporate decisions. The ending first phase of the research project has resulted in a series of papers that provide new evidence on the influence of taxation on multinational group structures. In the second phase, the project aims at extending the research in two directions. First, we aim at exploring new approaches to identify the impact of taxation on the development of group structures. One such approach rests on the distinction between a pure tax motivation for designing a group structure and non-tax drivers of these structures. An alternative approach, also featured in the project, rests on major reforms of tax principles regarding the taxation of multinational firms and their cross-border activities. Second, we want to analyze how group structures, designed in particular to facilitate profit shifting and to minimize taxes on dividends, influence investment and location decisions in high-tax countries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants