Tax Reforms and Inter-Temporal Shifting of Corporate Income: Evidence from Tax Records in Slovakia
CERGE-EI Working Paper Series No. 660
54 Pages Posted: 27 Oct 2020 Last revised: 24 Feb 2021
Date Written: September 1, 2020
Abstract
We use administrative tax return data for all corporations in Slovakia to demonstrate how policies facilitating inter-temporal income shifting result in elevated corporate income tax (CIT) elasticity estimates. Our strategy exploits kinks in the statutory tax schedules and policy reforms of tax carry-forwards. If inter-temporal shifting is neglected, our bunching estimates imply CIT elasticity of up to 0.65, suggesting a highly sensitive tax base with respect to the marginal tax rate. However, we show that CIT elasticity drops at least 21.2-49.1% when we remove the inter-temporal shifting component. This correction significantly reduces the estimated marginal excess burden of corporate taxation.
Keywords: corporate income tax, elasticity, inter-temporal profit shifting, bunching, tax carry-forwards
JEL Classification: G32, H25, H26, L25
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