Tax Avoidance by Multinational Enterprises and the Current International Tax System: an Ethical Perspective Luuk Maessen S4473337 International Business (Economics) MAN-MTHEC-2021 Dr. I. Boldyrev Master Thesis Pages: 55 Words: 23.834 You can’t tax business. Business doesn’t pay taxes. It collects taxes. -Ronald Reagan, [1975] (Inside Ronald Reagan, 1975) Table of Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Tax Evasion vs. Tax Avoidance & the Current International Tax System .................................................................................................... 2 1.2. The Scope & Structure ................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2. The Current International Tax System and its Ramifications .................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1. Globalization ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2. The Current International Tax System .................................................................................................................................................. 7 2.2. How do MNEs Avoid Taxes?......................................................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.1. Transfer Pricing ................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2.2. Royalty and Intellectual Property Rights Payments ............................................................................................................................ 11 2.3. Ramifications of Tax Avoidance .................................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.3.1. Inequality ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.3.2. Government Deficits and Free Riding ................................................................................................................................................. 16 3. Tax Avoidance and the Current International Tax System: a Normative Assessment .......................................................................... 18 3.1. Why Ethics?.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 3.2.1. (Ethical) Arguments Defending Tax Avoidance ................................................................................................................................. 20 3.2.2. (Ethical) Arguments Opposing Tax Avoidance .................................................................................................................................. 22 3.3. Ideal Theory.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 24 3.3.1. Ideal Theory: a Thought Experiment .................................................................................................................................................. 26 3.4. Nonideal Theory ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 28 3.5. Tax Avoidance: a Normative Assessment .................................................................................................................................................... 29 3.5.1. Inequality ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 29 3.5.2. Governments’ Tax Base ...................................................................................................................................................................... 32 3.5.3. Free Riding .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 33 3.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 34 4. The Case: G7 Tax Deal ................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 4.1. What Does the G7 Tax Deal Entail? ............................................................................................................................................................ 35 4.2. Stakeholders’ Reactions ............................................................................................................................................................................... 36 4.3. G7 Tax Deal and Nonideal Theory .............................................................................................................................................................. 39 4.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42 5. Global Tax Authority & Unitary Taxation with Formula Appointment ................................................................................................. 44 5.1. Establishment of a Global Tax Authority ..................................................................................................................................................... 44 5.2. Unitary Taxation with Formula Appointment .............................................................................................................................................. 45 5.3. Unitary Taxation with Formula Appointment and Nonideal Theory ........................................................................................................... 47 5.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 50 6. Conclusion and Discussion............................................................................................................................................................................ 51 6.1. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 51 6.2. Discussion..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 52 References........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 1. Introduction Although the words from former United States President Reagan were applicable in the 1970s, the relevance of these words was never so high as it is nowadays. As in 2018, Amazon made an $11.2 billion profit but didn’t pay income tax for the second year in a row, instead, Amazon received a federal tax refund of $129 million due to tax credits and deductions (The Guardian, 2019b). However, Amazon is not the only big multinational enterprise (MNE) that engages in ‘aggressive’ tax avoidance. In the last decade, the ‘big six’1 US tech companies avoided $100 billion in tax obligations (The Guardian, 2019a). It is therefore not surprising that corporate taxation attracted considerable attention from media, a wide range of stakeholders and is at the centre of (academic) debate for the last couple of years (Scarpa & Signori, 2020). The ramifications of ‘aggressive’ tax avoidance are disruptive for the general welfare and bad for businesses, governments, and citizens, especially for those in poor countries and developing and emerging economies (Weinzierl, 2018; OECD, 2021). Considering the above, one would expect tax avoidance to be illegal, however, these ‘aggressive’ tax avoidance strategies are perfectly legal by law (Hansen et al, 1992). Due to globalization MNEs can exploit informational gaps in a global environment that are not exploitable for ordinary citizens and small and medium enterprises (SME). Therefore, another criterion, then just technical compliance to the letter of the law, is needed to assess the fairness of tax avoidance by MNEs. A normative assessment is needed to