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原文:Risch M. Does Taxing Business Owners Affect Employees? Evidence From A Change in the Top Marginal Tax Rate[J]. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024, 139(1): 637-692.
Does Taxing Business Owners Affect Employees? Evidence From A Change in the Top Marginal Tax Rate
ABSTRACT: Debates about the taxation of business owners often center on the distributional effects of these taxes, particularly the degree to which they affect workers. Drawing on a new linked owner-firm-worker data set created from U.S. administrative tax records, I analyze how an increase in the top marginal tax rate faced by business owners affected the earnings of their employees. I use panel difference-in-differences methods to compare the earnings of workers in similar firms but whose owners were differentially exposed to the tax increase. I estimate that 11-18 cents per dollar of new business income tax liability was passed through to employee earnings. I find no change in employment in response to the tax increase. The responses were generally associated with lower earnings growth, not changes in workforce composition. The burden was not borne equally by all workers. Essentially all of the workers’ share of the burden was borne by those in the top 30% of the earnings distribution, highlighting that the ultimate distributional effects of the policy depend not only on the share of the burden borne by workers but on the shares borne by different types of workers. Furthermore, since the owners bore the majority of the burden, the policy resulted in a decrease in after-tax earnings inequality between top-bracket owners and lower-bracket workers. I discuss the implications of the findings for the mediating labor market mechanisms and for welfare analyses of income taxation using a marginal value of public funds framework.
对企业主征税会影响雇员吗?最高边际税率变化的证据
摘要:有关对企业主征税的争论往往集中在这些税收的分配效应上,尤其是对工人的影响程度。本文利用从美国行政税收记录中创建的新的所有者-企业-工人关联数据集,分析了企业主面临的最高边际税率的提高对其员工收入的影响。本文使用面板双重差分法比较了在类似企业工作的工人的收入,这些企业的所有者受增税影响的程度不同。本文估计,每1美元的新企业所得税税负有11-18美分被转嫁到了员工收入上。本文发现增税对就业没有影响。这种反应一般与较低的收入增长有关,而与劳动力构成的变化无关。并非所有工人都承担了同等的负担。实际上,所有工人的负担份额都由收入分布中最高的30%的人承担,这凸显出该政策的最终分配效应不仅取决于工人的负担份额,还取决于不同类型工人的负担份额。此外,由于企业主承担了大部分负担,该政策导致税后收入最高的企业主与收入较低的工人之间的不平等有所减少。本文将讨论这些发现对劳动力市场机制的中介作用以及使用公共资金边际价值框架对所得税进行福利分析的影响。
亮点:(1)本文对有关企业所得税发生率的文献做出了贡献。首先,本文利用国家税收变化和国内差异来说明企业所得税如何影响工人,从而为企业所得税发生率的研究提供了新的证据。其次,本文是首批对个人所得税制度中包含的企业所得税影响进行估算的研究之一。被转嫁企业在美国经济中占很大比重——占商业收入的大部分,约占就业人数的一半——以前对它们的研究不够,但它们对最高边际税率的累进性有影响。因此,本文是对企业所得税发生率研究的补充,尤其是对大型上市公司的企业所得税发生率研究。(2)对总体反应的分解为商业所得税的分配后果和美国税法的累进性提供了新的证据。对税收发生率的标准分析侧重于公司所有者相对于工人的负担份额。本文的研究结果强调,政策的最终影响不仅取决于工人的负担比例,还取决于不同类型工人的负担分布。(3)提供了对企业主征税影响工人的机制的新证据。本文利用企业层面税负转嫁的直接证据来强调劳动力市场在通过租金分享调节税收发生率方面的作用。本文利用微观数据首次直接估算了低税率工人受最高边际税率变化影响的程度和机制,并应用公共资金的边际价值(MVPF)框架评估了福利影响,补充了近期关于劳动力市场不完善对最优所得税影响的研究。
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原文:Belnap A, Hoopes J L, Wilde J H. Who Really Matters in Corporate Tax?[J]. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2024, 77(1): 101609.
Who Really Matters in Corporate Tax?
ABSTRACT: Internal and external parties meaningfully shape corporate tax outcomes. However, we lack a holistic understanding of the major parties involved and their comparative effects. Using proprietary IRS data for public and private firms, we identify the top executives, corporate accountants, external accounting firms, and individual tax preparers and examine the comparative importance of these parties on corporate tax outcomes. We find that external individual tax preparers matter much more than the accounting firms that employ them. Internal actors (top accountants and executives) explain more of the variation in corporate tax outcomes than external actors (individual tax preparers and accounting firms). We also find some evidence that individuals’ characteristics are associated with the tax behavior of the corporations they serve. Overall, we conclude that some of the actors who are unobservable in public data play a greater role in corporate tax outcomes than parties that are a focus of prior research.
谁才是企业税务的真正关键?
摘要:内部和外部各方对企业税收结果的形成具有重要意义。然而,本文缺乏对主要相关方及其比较效应的整体了解。本文利用美国国税局(IRS)关于上市公司和私营企业的专有数据,确定了高层管理人员、企业会计师、外部会计师事务所和个人报税者,并研究了这些方面对企业纳税结果的比较重要性。本文发现,外部个人报税者比雇用他们的会计师事务所重要得多。内部参与者(高级会计师和高管)比外部参与者(个人报税者和会计师事务所)更能解释公司税务结果的变化。本文还发现一些证据表明,个人的特征与他们所服务的公司的税务行为有关。总之,本文得出的结论是,一些在公共数据中无法观察到的行为主体在企业税收结果中发挥的作用要大于之前研究的重点对象。
亮点:(1)本文首次全面考察了关键人物在企业税收结果中所扮演的比较角色。本研究通过强调单个内部和外部方的重要作用和比较作用,拓展了对会计背景下公司边界的理解。利用美国国税局的机密数据,本文的研究结果表明,一些在公开数据中无法观察到的个人在公司结果中发挥的作用甚至比文献中关注的其他各方更大。(2)本文首次将国税局的个人机密数据与为企业服务的特定外部报税人员联系起来。本文的研究提供了外部人员的经济回报与他们所服务企业的税务结果相关的证据。由于税务机关在监控日益复杂的税务系统时面临资源限制,本文的研究结果为了解不同行为者在促进关键企业税收结果方面所扮演的角色提供了新的视角。
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原文:Kelley S O, Lewellen C M, Lynch D P, et al. “Just BEAT It” Do Firms Reclassify Costs to Avoid the Base Erosion and Anti-abuse Tax (BEAT) of the TCJA?[J]. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2024, 77(2-3): 101648.
“Just BEAT It” Do Firms Reclassify Costs to Avoid the Base Erosion and Anti-abuse Tax (BEAT) of the TCJA?
ABSTRACT: This study empirically examines whether firms reclassify related-party payments to avoid the base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT) of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). We leverage the BEAT filing threshold and use both a difference-in-differences design among U.S. firms and a triple-difference design utilizing the parent company’s location to provide evidence that firms reclassify related-party payments to avoid the BEAT. This effect is stronger in firms with greater pre-TCJA income shifting incentives. We estimate a $6 billion aggregate reduction in U.S. taxes for our sample firms in 2018. We also examine the consequences of reclassifying related-party payments and find some evidence of an increase in tax reserves and a reduction in internal information quality for firms that engage in cost reclassification to avoid the BEAT. These findings help explain observed BEAT collection shortfalls, contribute to the current policy debate about international tax reform, and document spillover effects of tax policy.
企业是否为规避税基侵蚀与反滥用税(BEAT)而对成本进行重新分类?
摘要:本文实证检验了企业是否为规避《减税与就业法案》(TCJA)中的税基侵蚀和反滥用税(BEAT)而对关联方付款进行重新分类。本文利用《税基侵蚀和反滥用税法》的申报门槛,在美国公司中采用双重差分设计,并利用母公司所在地进行三重差分设计,以提供企业为规避《税基侵蚀和反滥用税法》而对关联方付款进行重新分类的证据。这种效应在TCJA前收入转移动机较强的公司中更为明显。本文估计,2018年样本企业在美国的纳税总额将减少60亿美元。本文还研究了关联方付款重新分类的后果,研究表明,为规避BEAT而进行成本重新分类的企业,其税收准备金会增加,内部信息质量会下降。这些发现有助于解释观察到的BEAT征收不足,有助于当前关于国际税制改革的政策辩论,并记录了税收政策的溢出效应。
亮点:(1)本文为最近关于美国国际税收制度效率低下的说法提供了相关的经验证据。本文为支持拟议中的废除商品及服务税例外条款(《重建美好未来法案》,2021年)提供了证据,并为2024年拜登预算提案中关于完全废除BEAT的讨论提供了信息。本文的研究有助于解释BEAT税收收入不足的原因。(2)其次,本文的研究结果为研究企业税收筹划和美国对跨国公司征税的后果的文献增添了新的内容。本文研究了一项新的税收规则对跨国公司成本重新分类的影响,这种成本重新分类会降低公司的税负,但不会影响应税收入。本文还研究了成本重新分类行为对企业内部和外部信息环境的影响。因此,本文扩展了这一文献,为BEAT及其意外后果提供了证据。(3)本文的研究为越来越多研究TCJA国际税收条款的研究做出了贡献,回应了近期研究对TCJA对企业行为影响的呼吁。本文是第一篇利用大样本实证分析研究企业对BEAT的行为反应的论文。本文的研究结果表明,企业利用BEAT的销售成本(COGS)例外和成本分类固有的主观性对成本进行重新分类,以规避BEAT。总之,本文相信,在政策制定者、企业利益相关者和学术界评估1986年以来最大规模税制改革的后果时,他们会对本文的研究结果感兴趣。
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总编:游家兴
解析:秦会
审校:林珉慧 陈沁圆
编辑:潘芳妍