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Multinationals and services imports from havens: when policies stand in the way of tax planning
2022
Authors
Publication Year
2022
JEL Code
F14 - Country and Industry Studies of Trade
F23 - Multinational Firms; International Business
H26 - Tax Evasion
K34 - Tax Law
Abstract
We study the extensive and intensive margins of services imports by multinational groups from tax havens, and investigate to what extent those imports may have profit shifting motives. Drawing on rich data covering the universe of multinational groups with a presence in Portugal, we show that in a high-tax country where policies strongly discourage transactions with tax havens, multinational groups do not have an excess propensity to import intra-group from
those countries. For the havens directly targeted by the policies, there is even a negative excess propensity to do so. This notwithstanding, we document the existence of an excessive value of intra-group imports from a set of targeted havens.
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