Taxation Research Group

News and Events

  • New publication: The impact of environmental taxation on innovation: Evidence from Canada

In recent years, many governments have implemented environmental regulations to combat climate change. In particular, carbon taxes have shown to be an important policy tool to reduce emissions. However, there is little clarity about what drives this relationship. Based on the Porter hypothesis, we find evidence of innovation as a mediator between carbon taxes and CO2 emissions. Using Canadian province-level data from the period 1997–2015, we exploit the implementation of the 2008 British Columbian carbon tax to conduct a difference-in-differences analysis. Our results suggest a statistically and economically significant switch from product innovation to process innovation for British Columbia compared to other Canadian provinces not subject to the carbon tax. So, the stimulating impact of carbon taxes on process innovation appears to be an important explanation for the reduction of emissions.

I. Matterne, A. Roggeman, and I. Verleyen. (2024). The impact of environmental taxation on innovation: Evidence from Canada. Energy Policy, 187, (2024).


Free access until 22/04/2024: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ihpf14YGgtP-a

  • Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast 2024 (February 2024)

Auteur(s): Prof. dr. Em. Paul Beghin, Prof. dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof. dr. Isabelle Verleyen

Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast benadert de materie van de vennootschapsbelasting gestructureerd en op een originele manier. De auteurs combineren het juridische uitgangspunt met interessante bedrijfseconomische inzichten. De band tussen het boekhoudrecht en het fiscaal recht wordt geïllustreerd met talloze voorbeelden en verwijzingen naar de rechtspraak.

Dit boek geeft een duidelijke schets van het toepassingsgebied van de vennootschapsbelasting, het bepalen van het belastbaar inkomen, aftrekbare en niet-aftrekbare beroepskosten. Voorts wordt uitgelegd hoe de belastbare grondslag wordt bepaald en hoe men de verschuldigde vennootschapsbelasting berekent. Tot slot wordt aandacht besteed aan de verrekening van voorheffingen en belastingkrediet, aan de verschillende tarieven en aan de bijzondere aanslagstelsels. 

De combinatie van theorie en talrijke voorbeelden maakt dit handboek uitermate interessant als studieboek voor het hoger onderwijs en als referentiewerk voor praktijkmensen die geregeld in aanraking komen met de dagelijkse toepassing van de vennootschapsbelasting. 

   

Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast 2024

On November 16 and 17, we organized the thirteenth edition of the two-day Residential Seminar for our master students Business Administration – Taxation (Handelswetenschappen - Fiscaliteit). Armed with a suitcase full of tax knowledge, 53 students hit the road to Knokke at the Belgian coast. Building the bridge between education and practice was our mission.

Each of the six participating firms (CBFin, EY, KPMG Belgium, Titeca Pro Accountants & Experts, Vandelanotte, and Vialto Partners) supervised a team of 8 or 9 students working on a realistic business case. On the second day, the student teams presented their final result to a jury of Ghent University staff as well as experts from the field.

We look back on a successful edition for the students, the participating firms as well as for ourselves! On to next year!

 
2023_res_seminar_Group
  • 2023 congress of the European Association of Tax Law Professors - Luxemburg

Picture Luxembourg Dave Goyvaerts 


On june 9th and 10th, Dave Goyvaerts attended the 2023 congress of the European Association of Tax Law Professors in Luxemburg. This year, the congress focused on the Computation of Taxable Business Profits: Book-Tax Conformity and Other Issues. Dave participated in a panel session on the procedural aspects of book-tax conformity, chaired by Roman Seer (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), were he discussed ways to react to the abuse of accounting rules for tax purposes, using examples from the Belgian context.

  • The 45th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association in Espoo, Finland (2023)

In May 2023, a four-person delegation of our research group (Annelies Roggeman, Catherine Acosta Garcia, Kenny Dekoster, and Erik Gjymshana) traveled to Espoo (Finland) for the 45th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association.

In the same parallel session on Thursday morning, Catherine and Kenny presented their respective papers 'Public country-by-country reporting and corporate social responsibility: an analysis of European multinational banks' and 'Exploring the impact of tax education on CSR perceptions of corporate tax planning'. Both papers are a joint work with Prof. Dr. Isabelle Verleyen and Prof. Dr. Annelies Roggeman.

Erik took the floor in one of the research fora, presenting his paper on 'R&D tax credits, innovative activity, and the targeting approach', which is also a joint work with Prof. Dr. Annelies Roggeman and Prof. Dr. Isabelle Verleyen.

On top of that, Kenny also applied and got selected for the EAA doctoral colloquium, which was held in the days before the main congress. In a strong field of competitors, Kenny was nominated as one of the three EAA representatives for accounting congresses outside of Europe. In that capacity, Kenny will attend the 2024 CAA Craft of Accounting Research Workshop in June 2024, in Halifax (Canada). Congratulations!

 
 
Collage EAA1
  • Internationalization @home: a visit from Georg-August Universität's students

 

 

 

uitwisseling Georg-August-universität

On May 4 and 5, we welcomed a group of motivated tax students from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany) in Ghent. Accompanied by Prof. Dr. Andreas Oestreicher and Matti Boie-Wegener, the aim of their endeavor was not (only) to discover the charm of Ghent's medieval city centre, but predominantly to take part in the Internationalization@Home project we embarked on in the complementary study program in Business Economics - Taxation. For this project, a teaching case on international taxation was developed in close collaboration with Deloitte Belgium.

On Thursday, the students were divided into mixed teams of both universities to work together on the case that was presented to them. Mimicking the real-life procedure of receiving client information and preparing for a first client meeting highlighting the attention points from a tax perspective, the deadline was tight: a PowerPoint presentation covering their advice to the client needed to be handed in at 5 PM sharp. For the remainder of the day, our students took the group of German students with them on a well-prepared boat trip on the Ghentian waters. Next to showing their German counterparts around in Ghent, this was the perfect opportunity for the students to grow their international network.

On Friday morning, we moved on with the group presentations of their solution to the case before ending the two-day event with a lunch in the Krookcafé.

We look back on a successful event for the students as well as for ourselves, and on a successful as well as pleasant collaboration with our colleagues from Göttingen (Prof. Dr. Andreas Oestreicher and Matti Boie-Wegener). It has definitely sparked our interest to continue working on similar projects in the near future.

  • The first edition of the Ghent Conference on International Taxation (27/03/2023-28/03/2023)

From the start, our Taxation Research Group at Ghent University immediately agreed upon the aim and scope of the conference: discussing the latest research trends and developments in the field of international taxation in a constructive and Ghentian atmosphere. After launching the call for papers, we were happy to receive so many submissions, hence resulting in an inspiring program with both paper and poster presentations as well as several informal networking opportunities. We are also grateful for the engagement of our two distinguished keynote speakers. Eva Eberhartinger shared her insights into how to develop an academic career (both during and after your PhD), whereas Michael Overesch provided an overview of opportunities for further research into firm responses to international taxation.

We are honoured to have had the privilege to welcome such a diverse group of academics from all around Europe. Our participants' expertise, valuable insights, engagement as well as their warm-heartedness made the first edition of this conference truly memorable. We hope that the conference provided a valuable platform for all participants and that they all enjoyed it as much as we did organizing it. Let's keep the ties close, and we hope to (re)welcome you in Ghent in the future!

 
collage_tax_conference

  • Ghent Conference on International Taxation - Program

We are pleased to inform you that the final program for the Ghent Conference on International Taxation (27-28 April) is now available.

You can find the schedule here.

  • Excursion parliament and meet & greet with the Minister of Finance

Parliament_4 


No less than thirty of our MBA students with taxation as their main subject voluntarily signed up for an extracurricular daytrip to Brussels, the heart of Belgian politics.

The aim of this trip was to provide the students with more thorough insights into the interplay between taxation and politics. Thanks to all cooperating instances, we were able to offer the students a guided tour in the Belgian federal house of parliament in the morning and a meet and greet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem in the afternoon.

  • Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast 2023 (February 2023)

Auteur(s): Prof. dr. Em. Paul Beghin, Prof. dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof. dr. Isabelle Verleyen

Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast benadert de materie van de vennootschapsbelasting gestructureerd en op een originele manier. De auteurs combineren het juridische uitgangspunt met interessante bedrijfseconomische inzichten. De band tussen het boekhoudrecht en het fiscaal recht wordt geïllustreerd met talloze voorbeelden en verwijzingen naar de rechtspraak.

Dit boek geeft een duidelijke schets van het toepassingsgebied van de vennootschapsbelasting, het bepalen van het belastbaar inkomen, aftrekbare en niet-aftrekbare beroepskosten. Voorts wordt uitgelegd hoe de belastbare grondslag wordt bepaald en hoe men de verschuldigde vennootschapsbelasting berekent. Tot slot wordt aandacht besteed aan de verrekening van voorheffingen en belastingkrediet, aan de verschillende tarieven en aan de bijzondere aanslagstelsels. 

De combinatie van theorie en talrijke voorbeelden maakt dit handboek uitermate interessant als studieboek voor het hoger onderwijs en als referentiewerk voor praktijkmensen die geregeld in aanraking komen met de dagelijkse toepassing van de vennootschapsbelasting. 

 

 

  Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast 2023

  • Registration open - Ghent Conference on International Taxation

We are pleased to inform you that the registration for the Ghent Conference on International Taxation (27-28 April) is now open. You can find the preliminary schedule attached to this message. Please click here to register before 20 April.

We like to remind you of the deadline for paper submissions. Please submit your full paper or extended abstract (3 to 5 pages) to TaxationConference@UGent.be in Word or PDF format by Monday, 16 January 2023. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out early March.

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Ghent!

 

Kind regards,

The organizing committee

Annelies Roggeman

Isabelle Verleyen

Dave Goyvaerts

 Schedule Ghent tax conference 2023

  • Residential seminar 2022        

Residentieel_seminarie_Groepsfoto

On October 27 and 28, we organized the twelfth edition of our two-day Residential Seminar for the students Business Administration with Taxation as main subject. Armed with a suitcase full of tax knowledge, 46 tax students hit the road to Knokke at the Belgian coast. In addition to the students, we also welcomed many enthusiastic representatives from seven consulting firms (A. Coppin & Atacs, Deloitte, EY, Mazars, PwC, Titeca Pro Accountants & Experts and Vandelanotte) in Knokke.

Each of the seven participating firms drew up a realistic business case and subsequently supervised a team of 6 or 7 students working on their case. On the second day, the student teams presented their final result to a jury of Ghent University lecturers as well as experts from the field.

We look back on a successful edition for the students, the participating firms as well as for ourselves! On to next year!

The Taxation Research Group at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Ghent University is proud to invite you to the first edition of the Ghent Conference on International Taxation, which will take place on 27 and 28 April 2023 in Ghent, Belgium.
The aim of this conference is to provide scholars working on international taxation research from a (business) economics point-of-view with the opportunity to share and discuss their recent work. Topics may include, but are not limited to: tax avoidance, reporting, compliance, transparency, harmonization, and managerial decisions.
Each presenter will receive individual comments on their research project from a discussant. Additionally, feedback will
be received from the attendees, keynote speakers, and organizers in a friendly atmosphere.

 

Keynote speakers

We are happy to announce that our two keynote speakers for this edition will be:

Prof. Dr. Eva Eberhartinger
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Prof. Dr. Michael Overesch
University of Cologne

 

Submission guidelines
Please submit your full paper or extended abstract (3 to 5 pages) to TaxationConference@UGent.be in Word or PDF format by Monday, 16 January 2023. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in early March.

Conference registration
The registration fee of €75 will cover all catering and social
events during the conference. More details regarding
registration will follow soon. Click here to receive updates.

Graslei

For more information, please contact TaxationConference@UGent.be, or click here to receive updates.

 

  • Research visit at Oxford University

Dr. Dave Goyvaerts will join the renowned Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation as a visiting researcher from September 2022. 

In Oxford, he will carry out research on the OECD’s “Pillar 2” agreement to reduce international tax avoidance by introducing a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent for large multinational firms. More specifically, he will study the impact of the new agreement on firm value.

The members of the Centre for Business Taxation are considered to be among the world’s foremost experts on this topic, having published several articles and hosted multiple events regarding the Pillar 2 proposal.

We wish Dave good luck!

                                                                               
  • Wetboek Accountancy en Fiscaliteit 2021-2022: Deel 1 en 2

Auteur(s): Prof. dr. Bertel De Groote, Luc De Meyere, Els De Wielemaker, Stijn Plas, Prof. Stefan Ruysschaert, Prof. dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof. Jan Verhoeye

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8734647

  • New publication: An ex-ante assessment of the AGI : firm-level evidence from Belgian tax return data

Using confidential tax return data, we provide a unique research setting in which the Belgian notional interest deduction (NID) is replaced by the Allowance for Growth and Investment (AGI) as it is proposed by the European Commission. Our results show that the AGI would be a more viable option from a budgetary view. From a company view, however, introducing an AGI system would increase the probability of a higher effective tax rate (ETR). Especially large companies would be harmed as they would face a 7.6 percentage point higher probability of an ETR increase compared with SMEs. Furthermore, we find that there is a positive relationship between the equity ratio and the increased ETR, which is stronger for large firms compared to SMEs. This is in line with previous studies stating that large firms adjusted more aggressively to the NID by increasing their equity ratio more heavily than SMEs. However, large firms still face an ETR that is on average 10.4 percentage points lower compared with SMEs, indicating that the AGI is insufficient to undo the unequal level playing field between large and small companies.

P. Buyl, A. Roggeman, and I. Verleyen. (2021). An ex-ante assessment of the AGI: firm-level evidence from Belgian tax return data. CESIFO Economic Studies, 68(1),(2022), 46–72. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifab007

  • New publication: Political connections and tax avoidance : evidence from Belgium

This paper investigates to what extent politicians influence tax avoidance in Belgium. In order to examine this relationship, a unique dataset is constructed of all political mandates over the period 2004-2015. We find that Belgian companies with (former) politicians on their board of directors have a 3.64% points lower effective tax rate compared to unconnected counterparts. Also, firms having a higher number of politically connected directors or directors who have been active in politics for a longer period of time, face lower tax rates. Overall, our results suggest that companies consider politicians as valuable in applying a tax minimizing strategy.

L. Egghe, A. Roggeman, and I. Verleyen. Political connections and tax avoidance : evidence from Belgium. Accountancy & Bedrijfskunde, 2021(2), 20–31. DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8722382

  • Doctoral Defence: The impact of thin capitalization rules

On 24/02/2021, Dave Goyvaerts was awarded the degree of doctorate after defending his PhD Thesis titled 'The impact of thin capitalization rules'. His promoters were Prof dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof dr. Bertel De Groote, and Prof Jan Verhoeye. 

Executive Summary & PhD Thesis

Doctoraat Dave

Research

Our research group mainly focuses on topics in corporate taxation at the national and international level, which can be related to other disciplines like accounting, finance, management or economics. We deal with the following broad areas:

•    Tax incentives for business
•    Measures against tax avoidance of multinationals
•    Shareholder perceptions of tax avoidance
•    Tax avoidance and corporate social responsibility
•    Green taxation of companies

Marketing Groupwork
A common characteristic of our research is that the research topics have a grounding in real-world practice. Our research strategy is based on sound theoretical frameworks and advanced research methods.

Team

Fiscaliteit zoom

Education

Events

Contact