News and Events

• Doctoral Defence: The impact of corporate tax incentives for business: an analysis based on corporate tax returns

On 25/09/2020, Pieter Buyl was awarded the degree of doctorate after defending his PhD Thesis titled 'The impact of corporate tax incentives for business: an analysis based on corporate tax returns'. His promoters were Prof dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof dr. Bertel De Groote en Antoine Doolaege.

Executive Summary & PhD Thesis

• New publication: The impact of thin capitalization rules on subsidiary financing : evidence from Belgium

In order to prevent excessive profit shifting using internal debt by multinational firms, several countries have introduced thin capitalization rules limiting the deductibility of interests on internal loans. While prior research has consistently found that firms affected by thin capitalization rules reduce their internal debt-to-equity ratio, the means through which this reduction is achieved are understudied. This paper employs a Comparative Interrupted Time Series methodology to identify the short-term effects of newly introduced thin capitalization rules on subsidiaries' financing preferences, using a new dataset of detailed firm-level accounting data. The results indicate a reduction in internal debt and an increase in equity for affected firms, both by an increase in paid-up capital and by an increase in retained earnings. These findings about the way firms react may help lawmakers to estimate impact of future tax regulations.

D. Goyvaerts and A. Roggeman. The impact of thin capitalization rules on subsidiary financing : evidence from Belgium. Economist - Netherlands. (2020). 168(1). p.23-51. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10645-019-09353-x

• New publication: What do politicians think of the common consolidated corporate tax base? A Belgian case study

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.

A. Roggeman, P. Van Cauwenberge, I. Verleyen, and C. Carine. (2019). What do politicians think of the common consolidated corporate tax base? A Belgian case study. Accountancy & Bedrijfskunde, (1), 2–20.L. DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8624428

• New publication: Did the economic impact of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) affect the voting behaviour of the members of the European Parliament?

On 19 April 2012, the European Parliament voted on the European Commission's proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) Directive. We exploit a unique research setting which was created by an economic impact assessment of CCCTB that was made available to the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to support their decision process. Using statistical regression analysis, we investigate if the voting behaviour of MEPs was influenced by the predicted economic impact of CCCTB on their specific country. Our results show that, even after controlling for party, country and individual variables, the economic impact indeed had a significant influence on the voting behaviour of MEPs. In particular, more favourable economic consequences of CCCTB for a country led to a higher chance for MEPs to vote in favour of the CCCTB proposal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which empirically investigates the relationship between the voting behaviour of MEPs and the expected economic impact of measures they decide on.

I. Verleyen, A. Roggeman, and P. Van Cauwenberge, “Did the economic impact of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) affect the voting behaviour of the members of the European Parliament?,” Economist, vol. 163, no. 1, pp. 1–23, 2015. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10645-014-9238-4

• Doctoral Defence: Essays on the harmonization of the corporate tax system in Europe

• Doctoral Defence: Essays on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base

• New publication: Impact of a common corporate tax base on the effective tax burden in Belgium

In March 2011, the European Commission launched a proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB). However, a Common Corporate Tax Base (CCTB), leaving consolidation and apportionment out of consideration, appears to be a more realistic proposition for corporate tax harmonization in Europe. Using the European Tax Analyzer (ETA), we simulate the impact of the CCTB on the effective tax burden in Belgium. The results show that the adoption of the CCTB increases the Belgian effective tax burden by 16%. This remarkable increase is mainly driven by the fact that national tax deductions are not allowed under CCTB. This study allows policymakers to gain insight into the size effects of certain corporate tax measures and contributes to the current discussion on corporate tax harmonization in Europe.

A. Roggeman, I. Verleyen, P. Van Cauwenberge, and C. Coppens, (2014), “Impact of a common corporate tax base on the effective tax burden in Belgium,” Journal of Business Economics and Management, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 530–543, 2014.DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-5672227

• New publication: The EU apportionment formula: insights from a business case

In this paper we use firm level data from a listed multinational to investigate how several designs for the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) formula could affect the allocation of the consolidated tax base. The design is relevant in the light of member states' concern for protecting their tax revenues, as well as for the multinational companies' tax minimizing possibilities. Moreover, it plays an important role in achieving an efficient and simple tax system. Simulating different apportionment formulas, the results show that including more factors and using more equal weights distributes the common tax base more equally, which could reduce the incentive to shift factors from high to low tax countries. The results also indicate that simplifying the factor definitions, leads to rather minor changes in the allocation. Using unpublished data, this study allows to investigate the consequences of different formulas in detail, which contributes to the current discussion on corporate tax harmonization in the EU.

A. Roggeman, I. Verleyen, P. Van Cauwenberge, and C. Coppens, (2013). “The EU apportionment formula: insights from a business case,” Journal of Business Economics and Management, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 235–251, 2013.DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-2034523

• New publication: An empirical investigation into the design of an EU apportionment formula related to profit generating factors

The European Commission (EC) has the intention to establish a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, which requires an allocation formula to fairly distribute the consolidated tax base among all group entities. A fair distribution would mean that the allocation is closely related to the profit generating factors of the underlying entities. The EC supposes that fixed tangible assets, sales and labour are the dominant factors in the generation of profit. This paper analyses the profit generating capacity of these factors and of the alternative factor intangible assets. The results show that the proposed factors only explain 28% of the variation in profit. Moreover, the results indicate that recognized intangibles do not increase R2 significantly. However, for R&D intensive companies, adding the market less book value to proxy for unrecognized intangibles increases the explanatory power with 30%. This suggests that for these companies unrecognized intangibles could be important in generating profit.

A. Roggeman, I. Verleyen, P. Van Cauwenberge, and C. Coppens, (2012). “An empirical investigation into the design of an EU apportionment formula related to profit generating factors”, Transformations in Business & Economics, 11 (3) p.36-56. DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-3072922

• New publication: Do SMEs face a higher tax burden? Evidence from Belgian tax return data

The public debate on taxation of domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs) versus large and multinational enterprises (MNEs) is highly relevant nowadays. Using confidential tax return data instead of financial statement data, the results indicate that domestic SMEs face on average a 1.6 and 4.8 percentage-point higher effective tax burden compared to large domestic and large MNEs respectively. This suggests that tax incentives for SMEs are inadequate to compensate for the tax advantages of large and internationally operating companies. Furthermore, we show that the use of information built exclusively upon accounting data could bias the results.

P. Buyl and A. Roggeman, “Do SMEs face a higher tax burden? Evidence from Belgian tax return data,” Prague Economic Papers, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 729–747, 2019. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.18267/j.pep.719