On the relevance of double tax treaties

Kunka Petkova, Andrzej Stasio, Martin Zagler

Publication: Scientific journalJournal articlepeer-review

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Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of double tax treaties (DTTs) on foreign direct investment (FDI) after controlling for their relevance in the presence of treaty shopping. DTTs cannot be considered a bilateral issue, but must be viewed as a network. We define tax distance as the cost of channelling corporate income from one country to another and, by considering treaty shopping through intermediate jurisdictions, we calculate the shortest (i.e. the cheapest) distance between any two countries. We show that relevant tax treaties—which reduce the direct tax distance both over domestic law and the entire existing treaty network—will increase FDI by about 18%.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Tax and Public Finance
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Austrian Classification of Fields of Science and Technology (ÖFOS)

  • 502010 Public finance
  • 502046 Economic policy
  • 502047 Economic theory

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