Estimating the revenue losses of international corporate tax avoidance: the case of the Czech Republic
Abstract
International corporate tax avoidance by multinational enterprises likely lowers the Czech Republic's corporate income tax revenue, but it is not clear by how much. To clarify this I first review existing estimates of the revenue losses of international corporate tax avoidance to government revenue worldwide.
I then discuss revenue estimates relevant for the Czech Republic and develop a few new, albeit only illustrative, ones. None of the existing research focused on the Czech Republic nor did the six recent international studies I examine provide reliable estimates for the Czech Republic.
The extrapolations from these studies result in a revenue loss of a quite wide range with a median of 10% of current corporate income tax revenues. The other newly prepared estimates, based on firm-level and aggregate data, are of similar magnitude.
I conclude with a discussion of these rough estimates as well as questions for further research and policy recommendations.