Working Paper

Corporate Income Tax and Economic Distortions

Gaëtan J.A. Nicodème
CESifo, Munich, 2008

CESifo Working Paper No. 2477

As any non-lump-sum tax, corporate income taxation creates distortions in economic choices, reducing its efficiency. This paper reviews some of these domestic and international distortions and their most recent estimates from the economic literature. Distortions originating from income shifting between capital and labour sources, profit shifting across jurisdictions, the effects of taxation on business location and foreign direct investment are the major sources of distortions.

CESifo Category
Public Finance
Keywords: corporate taxation, distortions, tax efficiency
JEL Classification: H250