Research

We analyze to what extent more generous tax loss offset regulations are associated with a weaker decline and stronger recovery of firm stock prices during economic crises. We argue that an unrestricted loss carryforward and, particularly, an unrestricted loss carryback provides firms with additional liquidity, which should lower the risk of bankruptcy and can be used for investment purposes. Our empirical findings document that (1) an unrestricted loss carryforward and an unrestricted loss carryback result in a weaker decline and more timely recovery of stock prices during the considered crises, (2) this effect is stronger in high-tax countries, and (3) this effect is also dependent upon pre-crisis profitability. 

This paper investigates how multinational banks use internal debt to shift profits to low-taxed affiliates. Using regulatory data on multinational banks headquartered in Germany, we show that banks use this tax avoidance channel more aggressively than non-financial multinationals do. We find that a ten percentage points higher corporate tax rate increases the internal net debt ratio by 5.7 percentage points, corresponding to a 20% increase at the mean. Our study also takes into account the existence of conduit entities, which simply pass through financial flows. If conduit entities are systematically located in low-tax countries, previous studies may have underestimated the extent of debt shifting. 

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Wir untersuchen die Auswirkungen des InvStRefG auf die steuerliche Belastung von Immobilien-Publikumsfonds für natürliche Personen. Hierzu werden auf Basis einer mehrperiodigenSteuerbelastungsrechnung effektive Steuerbelastungen für einenprivaten Fondsanleger ermittelt und denen einer Direktinvestition in Immobilien gegenübergestellt. Es wird u.a. festgestellt, dassdie Fondsinvestition bei hohen Einkommensteuersätzen tendenziell vorteilhafter ist, die Haltedauer einen wesentlichen Einflussauf die Vorteilhaftigkeit hat und ein zunehmender Grad an Fremdfinanzierung die Direktinvestition vorteilhafter werden lässt.

[We examine how the Investment Tax Reform Act affects the tax burden of real estate fund investments. Based on a multi-period tax assessment, we calculate effective tax rates for individual investors holding their fund shares as a private asset and compare it to the effective tax rates of a direct investment in a real estate property. We find that the fund investment has advantages in particular in cases of very high income tax rates, whereas it is disadvantageous if debt financing is high.]

not publicly available