Making Sense of Profit ShiftingProfit shifting is when multinational companies reduce their tax burden by moving the location of their profits from high-tax countries to low-tax jurisdictions and tax havens. is an interview series that aims to advance and cultivate a more informed discussion of a tax policy topic. TaxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. Foundation Forum aggregates the latest research and thinking through a set of interviews with leading scholars, policy experts, and practitioners.
With its focus on the profit shifting phenomenon, this year’s edition of Tax Foundation Forum seeks to make sense of an issue that has significantly influenced the international tax debate as well as the U.S. corporate tax reform debate.
A policy-relevant topic that has received unprecedented attention in the public discourse, profit shifting is directly related to issues concerning taxation and tax planning of multinational firms. As this debate unfolds – in the U.S. as well as internationally – Making Sense of Profit Shifting aims to provide context on the topic of profit shifting by surveying leading tax scholars, practitioners, and policy experts. We hope the interview series provides a current and holistic examination of the phenomenon from an academic, practical, and policy perspective.
The series discusses a number of underlying themes: (1) What is actually known about profit shifting and which areas remain ambiguous; (2) the drivers and mechanics of profit shifting; (3) the magnitude and directional trend of profit shifting; (4) missing pieces for a better understanding of profit shifting; (5) solutions to profit shifting, with a focus on the feasibility or desirability of multilateral cooperation; and (6) the status quo and future of the corporate income tax and international taxation.
Making Sense of Profit Shifting features 18 participants that each have a unique viewpoint and understanding of profit shifting. The interviews will be published daily over the next couple weeks, starting on May 13th.
Participants | Interview | ||
---|---|---|---|
Kimberly Clausing |
Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics |
Reed College |
|
Mihir Desai |
Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School |
Harvard University |
|
Dhammika Dharmapala |
Professor of Law |
University of Chicago Law School |
|
Edward Kleinbard |
Theodore Johnson Professor of Law and Business |
University of Southern California, Gould School of Law |
|
Lars Feld |
Chair, Economic Policy and Constitutional Economics |
Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg |
|
Jack Mintz |
Director and Palmer Chair in Public Policy |
University of Calgary, School of Public Policy |
|
Kevin Markle |
Assistant Professor of Accounting |
The University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business |
|
Scott Dyreng |
Associate Professor of Accounting |
Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business |
|
Pascal Saint-Amans |
Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration |
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development |
|
Douglas Shackelford |
Dean and Meade H. Willis Distinguished Professor of Taxation |
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School |
|
Manal Corwin |
National Service Line Leader for International Tax and Principle-in Charge of Washington National Tax-International Policy |
KPMG |
|
Harry Grubert |
Senior Research Economist |
U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis |
|
Nadine Riedel |
Professor of Public Finance and Economic Policy |
Ruhr University Bochum |
|
Pam Olson |
Deputy Tax Leader and Washington National Tax Services Practice Leader |
PwC |
|
Thomas Neubig |
Deputy Head of Tax Policy and Statistics Division |
OECD, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration |
|
Victoria Perry |
Assistant Director and Division Chief, Tax Policy |
International Monetary Fund |
|
Kenneth Klassen |
Deloitte Professor and Director of Waterloo Centre for Taxation in a Global Economy |
University of Waterloo |
|
Gary Hufbauer |
Reginald Jones Senior Fellow |
Peterson Institute for International Economics |
All interviews were conducted by Tax Foundation Taxes and Growth Fellow, Erik Cederwall. The interviews are edited for length and clarity.
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