The corporate tax haven index: A new geography of profit shifting

Abstract

In recent years, major data leaks from the Lux Leaks to the Paradise Papers have revealed the extent and systematic nature of the efforts of multinational corporations and their professional advisers to minimize their global tax payments. Central to these efforts are the deeply flawed international tax rules set by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the role of individual jurisdictions that compete to attract the shifting of profits at the expense of the countries where multinationals’ real economic activity takes place. But those leaks, and the limited accounting data that multinationals are required to publish, provide only the most partial basis to analyse the relative importance of profit shifting jurisdictions or corporate tax havens.