TAX REFORM FOR TAX COMPETITION: WHICH ALTERNATIVES SHOULD BE USED?

In this article the authors’ objective is to discover the extent to which the economic concept of interest-adjusted income taxation, which from a national standpoint is most attractive, can also render a country more attractive as a business location in global tax competition. In order to achieve this objective the authors first attempt to determine the rules that must be complied with by a country in the structuring of its domestic tax law against the background of global tax competition. A central factor here is the prohibition of tax discrimination between domestic and foreign taxpayers, whereby domestic tax law is subservient to the requirements of international tax law. National sovereignty remains intact, however, with regard to the choice of a concept for the tax system to be adopted. With this in mind, the authors show that the attractiveness of a country as a business location with a given tax rate is enhanced by the introduction of an interest-adjusted income tax with the deduction of interest on equity capital as a special feature. This is refl ected in the principal international measure of the tax burden, the Effective Average Tax Rate (EATR).