Bittker's Pendulum and the Taxation of Multinationals

Tax Notes International, Volume 104, November 1, 2021

NYU Law and Economics Research Paper No. 22-03

20 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2021 Last revised: 7 Mar 2022

See all articles by Daniel Shaviro

Daniel Shaviro

New York University School of Law

Date Written: November 1, 2021

Abstract

Recent calls for increased entity-level corporate income taxation of multinationals, on both a source and a residence basis, have a distinctly back-to-the-future cast. At least as to the bottom line, they have far more in common with 1986-era thinking than with which has often prevailed in more recent decades. However, their intellectual basis has substantially changed, reflecting the evolution of economic thinking to reflect twenty-first century trends.

This historical back-and-forth has ample parallels in other areas, and precedents from earlier eras. In corporate and international tax policy, as well with regard to taxing capital income and addressing high-end inequality more generally, the rise of standard neoclassical Econ 101 precepts that, in the preceding period, had been underappreciated was succeeded by a growing awareness of what those precepts leave out. Meanwhile, the popular back-and-forth has reflected fluctuating public perceptions regarding, not just the importance of distributional issues, but also unfettered free market capitalism’s merits and performance.

Keywords: corporate income taxation, tax competition, tax history

JEL Classification: H20, H25, B20

Suggested Citation

Shaviro, Daniel, Bittker's Pendulum and the Taxation of Multinationals (November 1, 2021). Tax Notes International, Volume 104, November 1, 2021, NYU Law and Economics Research Paper No. 22-03, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3963998

Daniel Shaviro (Contact Author)

New York University School of Law ( email )

40 Washington Square South
Room 314-B
New York, NY 10012-1099
United States
212-998-6187 (Phone)
212-995-4341 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://rb.gy/no08bj

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
187
Abstract Views
1,050
Rank
330,875
PlumX Metrics