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GLOBALIZATION AND ITS TAX DISCONTENTS:
TAX POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENTS
This page intentionally left blank
Globalization and Its Tax
Discontents
Tax Policy and International
Investments
ISBN 978-0-8020-9976-1
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Preface xiii
1.0 Introduction 18
2.0 Policy Implications of a Non-cooperative Setting 19
2.1 Evaluating Tax Reform Proposals Given Existing Political
Constraints 19
vi Contents
1.0 Introduction 35
2.0 China’s Tax Incentives Prior to 2008 37
2.1 The Origin of China’s Tax Incentive Regime: From the Early
1980s to 1991 37
2.2 Tax Incentive for FDI under the FEITL from 1991 to 2007 38
3.0 The Tax Incentives Regime in the 2008 EIT Law 40
3.1 The Law’s Major Changes 40
3.2 The Effects of Changes to the Tax Incentive Regime on FDI
in China 43
3.3 Will the New Regime Help China to Attract and Retain the
FDI It Wants? 44
3.3.1 The Use of Tax Holidays 44
3.3.2 A Reduced Enterprise Income Tax Rate 47
3.3.3 Accelerated Depreciation 47
3.3.4 Reinvestment Incentives 48
3.3.5 Favourable Deduction Rules 48
3.4 Summary 49
4.0 Conclusions 49
1.0 Introduction 60
2.0 Behavioural Margins Implicated by an Unrestricted Interest-
Expense Deduction 62
Contents vii
1.0 Introduction 84
2.0 The Basic Approach to Assessing the FDI Response to Tax
Reform 87
3.0 Cross-border Financing Developments 91
4.0 Cross-border AETR/METR Analysis: A Focus on Tax-Planning
Effects 93
4.1 Base Case Results 94
4.2 Thin Capitalization of High-Taxed Subsidiaries 96
4.3 Double-Dip Financing 98
4.4 A Hybrid-Instrument Financing Structure 100
4.5 A Triangular Financing Structure 101
4.6 A Hybrid-Entity Financing Structure 104
5.0 Factoring Tax Planning into Assessments of the FDI Response to
Tax Reform 106
4.2 The Gender Impact of Tax Benefits for Inward FDI 164
5.0 Conclusions 165
Contributors 329
Index 331
Preface
I am privileged to have known the late Alex Easson, both as his student
and, later, as his colleague. In the early 1990s, I took two courses with
Professor Easson: Business Associations and Tax Policy. For the latter,
a seminar course, I wrote a paper on policy responses to tax haven de-
velopments, and I recall that Professor Easson provided extensive and
insightful comments on my work, on which I subsequently relied when
I pursued graduate studies in international tax law. After I joined the
Faculty of Law at Queen’s University in 2001, Professor Easson (then
retired) was kind enough to continue to help me with my research and
to invite me to his home, where I first met his wife Trudie. I will always
remember his cheerful demeanour and his obvious passion and devo-
tion to the life of a scholar.
This book draws from essays given at a symposium held in honour
of Professor Easson at Queen’s Law on 29 February 2008. The sympo-
sium brought together a range of experts on the topic of tax policy and
international investments, which served as Professor Easson’s main re-
search focus. During the symposium itself, at the reception at the Agnes
Etherington Art Centre, and at a dinner at the University Club, which
Professor Easson frequented to share a drink with his mates, we re-
membered with fondness his life and achievements.
We are grateful for the financial support for these events provided by
the Faculty of Law, KPMG LLP, and an anonymous private donor. I am
also very appreciative of the organizational and other assistance offered
by my symposium co-chair Gabe Hayos. I would like to thank, in addi-
tion to the chapter contributors, those who helped out as panel chairs or
paper commentators at the symposium: Mary Anne Bueschkens, David
Duff, David Kerzner, Lori McMillan, Mark Meredith, Brian Mustard,
xiv Preface
Martha O’Brien, Dan Thornton, and Geoff Turner. Several law student
volunteers proved crucial to the success of the events: Tim Fish, Kim
McGarrity, Shannon Nelson, and Kevin Refah.
I also wish to thank Adam Freedman and Shannon Nelson for their
assistance with the preparation of this book. Finally, I am grateful for
the editorial assistance of Jennifer DiDomenico at the University of To-
ronto Press and for the helpful input provided by four anonymous ref-
erees selected by the Press.
This book is dedicated to Trudie Easson.
AJC
April 2009
Kingston, Ontario
PART I
arthur j. cockfield
The topic of globalization and tax is an ancient one. Writings in the area
date back at least 2,500 years to the work of Herodotus, the ancient Greek
scholar who coined the term ‘history.’1 In The Histories, Herodotus tells
us of an era when ancient peoples came increasingly in contact with one
another through cross-border trade and investment as well as warfare.
He was writing during the so-called Greek Enlightenment, a time of
relative peace and prosperity for the Greeks who, a generation before,
had successfully defended their lands against invasion by the Persians.
Intensely interested in foreign developments, the Greeks reviewed the
tax systems within the great Persian and Egyptian empires to see what
lessons they could learn: for instance, Herodotus tells us that, in 594 BC,
Solon the Athenian copied the Ancient Egyptian practice of forcing citi-
zens to declare how much wealth they had for tax purposes.2
In an era of enhanced global economic interdependence, modern gov-
ernments, like those of the ancients, increasingly study the tax policies
in place elsewhere. In contemporary terms, they are seeking to ensure
their tax rules governing the treatment of cross-border investments are
‘competitive’ with those of foreign tax regimes, a much friendlier bat-
tle than the real ones of earlier eras. In recent years, governments in
the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia, New
Zealand, Sweden, and elsewhere have discussed reforming their tax
systems so that they encourage (or at least do not inhibit) international
investments.3 In 2007, the Canadian minister of finance appointed an
Advisory Panel on Canada’s System of International Taxation to ‘im-
prove the fairness, economic efficiency and competitiveness of Cana-
4 Arthur J. Cockfield
• multinational firms shift more and more paper profits through so-
phisticated tax-planning strategies to investments in countries that
impose relatively lower (or nil) tax burdens, which often reduces
taxes collected in relatively high-tax countries;17 and
• it is becoming progressively more difficult to determine which
country should assess the appropriate tax liability (along with en-
joying the resulting tax revenues) on globally integrated products
and services derived through cross-border investments.18
For a sense of the policy challenges, consider the tax issues surround-
ing one such globally integrated product: the 2007 international block-
buster film 300, loosely based on Herodotus’s account in The Histories of
the Battle of Thermopylae (circa 480 BC), where King Leonidas led his
300 Spartan warriors, as well as other Greek troops, against a Persian
army of overwhelming numbers.19 The film highlights the complexities
of taxing modern, globally integrated products. It was produced by a
major U.S. film studio, but almost entirely filmed on digital video in a
green-screened warehouse outside Montreal. A Montreal special effects
company subsequently added digital effects, so that the movie appears
to have been filmed in an exterior setting. To date, the movie has earned
worldwide revenues of more than US$500 million.
As to the first tax concern, about the impact of tax on investment lo-
cation, 300 was filmed and edited in Montreal in large part due to film
and video production tax credits offered by the Canadian and Quebec
governments.20 Does it matter that Canada attracted this international
investment in part as a result of tax incentives? Do such tax incentives
distort cross-border investment decision-making in an unproductive
manner, as some argue?21 The Canadian government justifies these
incentives in part as a way to encourage film works that protect and
enhance Canadian culture. Should Canada be prohibited from attract-
ing investments through its tax regime by some international tax or-
ganization?22
In terms of the second international tax concern, about the use of tax
planning to shift income to reduce global tax liabilities, it is difficult to
assess whether such planning played a role in the financing or opera-
tions of 300. A typical movie industry tax-planning strategy involves
shifting studio overhead costs to profitable movies (such as 300) since
they can be deducted against gross revenues to reduce taxable profits.
In this way, studios protect their investments against the fact that many
movies lose money – the box office winners subsidize the losers. The
Introduction 7
problem is that, although Canadian and U.S. tax laws (as well their
bilateral tax treaty) generally do not permit tax losses in a corporation
in one country to be offset against profits in the other, they allow two
related corporations in the same country to undertake this loss offset-
ting.23 These rules encourage multinational firms to engage in sophisti-
cated tax planning to ensure their investments remain viable. They can
achieve additional tax savings by shifting their profits to a jurisdiction
(such as a tax haven) with low or nil taxes. In the case of 300, because
the U.S. studio sold the film rights to distributors around the world, it
might have been possible to shift some of the profits from these sales, as
well as any resulting tax revenues, away from countries with relatively
high taxes, such as Canada and the United States.
As for the third tax concern, about ensuring that governments collect
an appropriate share of tax revenues from the profits of multination-
al firms, assuming that 300 generated taxable profits, which country
should enjoy a greater share of the tax revenues? The matter is com-
plicated because 300 is, in tax parlance, a unique, intangible asset that
will continue to enjoy streams of cross-border royalty income from the
sales of rights to use the asset. Most of the film’s initial creative input
occurred in the United States: it was adopted from the work of a U.S.
writer, and the director and several screenwriters were also American.
Should this fact entitle the U.S. government to tax a greater share of the
global profits from sales to movie distributors, as well as subsequent
royalties? Does the fact that most of the actual filming and editing of the
movie took place in Canada warrant greater taxation by the Canadian
government? Did Canada, through its film and video production tax
credit, voluntarily give up its right to tax the film’s profits in exchange
for other benefits, such as fostering and maintaining a skilled work-
force in Canada?
The tax policy issues that arise from this scenario are vexing indeed.
And this is just one of seemingly countless examples – automobiles,
cell phones, software, toys, call centres, to name a handful – of globally
integrated products and services to which these conundrums apply.
countries find they can no longer ‘go it alone’ and develop international
tax policy positions as they see fit.24 Because tax is interwoven with the
fabric of society, as Solon the Athenian realized long ago, these policy
decisions are of critical importance in determining each country’s vi-
sion of a just society. Governments have already ceded policy control
over many other areas, such as international trade; now they are strug-
gling to determine the appropriate policy responses that will let them
maintain democratic control over their tax systems while recognizing
that globalization makes this control increasingly illusory.25
International tax reform is thus one of the last policy battlegrounds of
globalization. Indeed, like some unruly beast, international tax policy
refuses to be tamed by traditional international law principles.26 De-
velopments considered passé in other areas of public international law
seem almost radical when considered for implementation within the
international tax regime. For instance, governments have only recently
begun seriously to contemplate cross-border tax law mechanisms such
as binding arbitration for certain international tax disputes, the recipro-
cal enforcement of cross-border tax debts, or even the distant possibil-
ity of a multilateral tax treaty – tax law ‘innovations’ that have been in
place in some shape or form for more than a half-century in interna-
tional trade.
And so it goes with respect to the taxation of international invest-
ments: the tax law and treaty rules that govern the taxation of these
investments remain much the same today as the ones advocated by
League of Nations’ experts almost a hundred years ago.27 Because of
the politically charged nature and glacial pace of international tax re-
form, some long-time tax observers maintain, as Alex Easson did, that
international tax policy analysis should try to integrate current think-
ing about economic theory with an understanding of the broader re-
alities that dictate whether tax reform measures will succeed. To these
observers, the main policy challenge is to develop effective internation-
al tax rules and processes within what is essentially a non-cooperative
government setting.
This perspective helps to illuminate the main theme the chapters in
this book reveal, which is that, to promote optimal international tax
policy outcomes with respect to taxing international investments in a
non-cooperative setting, scholars need to account for economic inter-
ests as well as relevant political, social, historical, and other interests.
The book’s contributors consider tax policy concerns from different
angles, including international tax economics, gender theory, historical
perspectives, and international relations theory. The diversity of these
Introduction 9
The book is divided into four parts that strive to identify the ways in-
ternational tax policy can confront the reality of taxing enhanced cross-
border investment flows in a non-cooperative government setting. Part
I examines in a general way the role that tax laws and policies play in
inhibiting or encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) – that is, en-
trepreneurial investments that involve the creation of new businesses
in foreign markets. Part II examines how, in an environment in which
economies increasingly are intertwined, tax laws and international tax
agreements help to decide which countries and individuals win and
lose on revenues associated with taxing international investments. Part
III focuses on the important role that bilateral tax treaties (along with
their negotiation) play in determining rules for taxing international
investments, and how the status quo might be harming the interests
of developing countries. Part IV considers the taxation of cross-border
services and service providers in recognition of the fact that globali-
zation is driving many economies to focus on services as a relatively
larger portion of overall economic activity. The interaction among dif-
ferent national income and consumption tax systems is hence playing
a greater role in influencing the provision of cross-border services as
well as the allocation of cross-border investments in service industries.
2008 that depart from the traditional approach. These efforts remain
controversial, however, as China continues to use tax as a policy tool
to favour investments by foreigners over those by locals. A review of
past Chinese practices reveals a drawback of the current international
regime: as long as there is no global tax institution to bind participating
countries to international tax rules, governments can deploy tax incen-
tives (such as the Canadian film and production tax credits) as they see
fit, which could distort cross-border investment decision-making in a
manner that is economically inefficient, leading to overall reductions in
global wealth (and corresponding reduced standards of living).
In recent years, some governments have changed their tax systems
to exempt from tax all foreign-source active business income. This
development has led to the paying of increased academic and policy
attention to tax rules that permit interest deductions to fund foreign
investments and operations that are exempt from residence-country
tax. These interest deductions for exempt foreign-source income, in
fact, are responsible for one of the biggest holes in the global fiscal
web, since they reduce taxable profits and revenues in countries that
maintain relatively high taxes. Thus, in Chapter 4 (‘Outbound Direct
Investment and the Sourcing of Interest Expenses for Deductibility
Purposes’), Tim Edgar explores how governments are changing their
tax laws to prevent excessive interest deductions to finance foreign op-
erations and investments, and considers recent Canadian reforms in
this area.
To evaluate the ongoing battle for international investments, policy
analysts sometimes refer to studies of the marginal effective tax rate
(METR) and the average effective tax rate (AETR) that try to measure
the influence of tax on cross-border investment decision-making. Chap-
ter 5 (‘Assessing the Foreign Direct Investment Response to Tax Reform
and Tax Planning’), by W. Steven Clark, describes the assumptions
that traditional METR/AETR studies can incorporate in estimating
the impact on cross-border investment decisions of tax reform and tax
planning, which such studies typically ignore but which can influence
significantly the amount of taxes owed on an international investment.
Here, Clark contributes to our understanding of the potential and lim-
its of METR/AETR studies for international tax policy analysis.
Another area of policy concern is the nature of tax treaties – the most
important of which is the OECD model treaty – that were initially de-
veloped, and subsequently revised, by countries that generally were
wealthy net exporters, rather than importers, of capital and that thus
favour their interests at the expense of those of capital-importing, often
poorer countries. In Chapter 10 (‘Canada’s Evolving Tax Treaty Policy
toward Low-Income Countries’), Kimberley Brooks reviews how tax
treaty policy often harms the interests of poorer countries, and discuss-
es Canada’s uneven record with respect to addressing this issue. She
shows how resistance to solutions involving collective action can harm
economically vulnerable countries that do not have the resources to im-
plement or police bilateral tax treaties to protect their own interests.
In Chapter 11 (‘Tax Treaties and the Taxation of Non-residents’ Capi-
tal Gains’), Rick Krever sets out the case for countries to adopt devia-
tions from the OECD and United Nation model treaties to take better
account of the fact that, under globalization, foreign investors increas-
ingly use sophisticated strategies to ensure they do not pay tax on the
sale of real estate assets. He discusses how negotiators, especially those
from developing countries, need to ensure that treaties protect the
source country’s right to tax any gains related to these sales. He notes
that, in treaty negotiations, experienced countries with greater exper-
tise tend to protect themselves better than those that are less endowed
Introduction 13
Notes
arthur j. cockfield
1.0 Introduction
Easson began to explore the role that tax plays with respect to cross-
border investments in the context of regional economic integration in
Europe: at the time, his views were characterized as ‘trail-blazing’ and
‘probably the most comprehensive guide’ to the subject.2 Through this
research, Easson came to appreciate the need to tailor tax laws to the
political preferences of the different EU Member States while striving to
reduce tax as a barrier to the efficient working of the internal market. In
1981, for instance, Easson noted that ‘[g]overnments guard their fiscal
sovereignty jealously, surrendering it only when they have to … Never-
theless, the eventual objectives of the [European] Community must be
kept in mind to ensure that such progress as is possible is not inconsist-
ent with these goals.’3
Over time, Easson refined his views on the need to factor in exist-
ing political realities when developing policy prescriptions, in part to
ensure that such efforts had a reasonable chance of success.4 Are tradi-
tional international tax policy principles, such as the need to promote
inter-nation equity, still the way to divide the international income tax
pie? Alas, Easson was not confident that, while a helpful concept in
many ways, inter-nation equity would offer a way out. Despite dec-
ades of attention to the concept, Easson noted, no real consensus ex-
isted on what is a fair division of the international income tax base,
in part because of the difficulties associated with deciding what is
the true ‘source’ of particular types of income (see Chapter 6 in this
volume).
With respect to international tax reform processes, Easson noted that
theoretical considerations concerning the ‘fair’ division of the inter-
national income tax base between two countries are frequently down-
played in favour of efforts to develop bilateral tax treaties to resolve
‘competing tax grabs by national tax administrators [rather] than a
principled attempt to allocate the tax base appropriately.’5 As a result,
‘[n]otions of inter-nation equity generally fail to provide much in the
way of specific guidance.’6
Instead, Easson developed his own evaluative criteria that focused
to a greater extent on the political feasibility of implementing reform
projects. In his view, international tax reform processes should strive to
meet the following conditions:7
20 Arthur J. Cockfield
• the reform efforts should not involve too great a change in total tax
yield;
• the efforts should not require major re-negotiation of existing tax
treaties;
• the efforts should not be excessively complex to draft or difficult to
apply; and
• the efforts should be capable of being implemented unilaterally.
Easson accepted the need to promote neutral tax rules that reduce the tax
distortion of cross-border economic activity. Because tax influences the
returns that firms and investors derive, tax burdens can distort decision-
making in an economically unproductive manner if decisions are made
for tax reasons, not out of economic rationales. These distortions could
reduce domestic and global wealth and, ultimately, standards of living.
In the traditional view, a tax system should not distort the choice be-
tween investment at home or abroad, following the principle of capital-
export neutrality (CEN). Alternatively (or in addition), a tax system
should not distort the choice facing savers to invest at home or abroad,
following the principle of capital-import neutrality (CIN), which could
be promoted by the exclusive source taxation of cross-border income.
CEN is the principle many international tax experts – in particular, tax
economists – espouse, in part because firms are thought to be more
sensitive to tax differences, so such differences distort firms’ economic
activities to a greater extent than those of investors and savers. In other
Taxing Foreign Direct Investment 21
words, CEN is more likely to promote global welfare (that is, income)
maximization (for a more detailed discussion of these concepts, see
Chapters 4 and 6 in this volume).
CEN is promoted by residence-based income tax rules that strive to
tax the worldwide income of tax residents but, as Easson and others
recognized, in practice, it is difficult to achieve.10 For instance, countries
provide foreign tax credits only to the extent that the source country
does not impose a higher tax rate than the residence country; no country
provides tax refunds for the payment of higher foreign taxes. Moreover,
all countries permit deferral of the taxation of foreign-source income
earned in foreign subsidiaries until and unless these subsidiaries dis-
tribute profits back to their parent corporations based in residence
countries; CEN would require the accrual taxation of these foreign
earnings, even if no profit repatriation took place.
There is also the practical reality that foreign-source income is often
difficult to tax – particularly in light of taxpayers’ adoption of avoid-
ance and evasion strategies – and, thus, to the extent that source-based
taxation is inhibited, the income will remain untaxed by the residence
country. Easson worried that an emphasis on residence-based taxation
of business profits earned through FDI would lead to the phenomenon
of ‘double non-taxation’ due to difficulties associated with taxing inter-
national mobile capital: ‘In reality, the choice may be between source-
country taxation and no taxation at all.’11
More problematic, in Easson’s view, were the difficulties associated
with obtaining CEN for tax-exempt investors, which form a significant
part of the investment community in many OECD countries. For ex-
ample, Easson noted that, in most of these countries, the majority of
shares of listed companies are held by tax-exempt entities such as pen-
sion funds or by financial institutions that might be subject to a special
taxation regime.12 Because tax-exempt investors are not subject to tax
by the home country, CEN would require a host country also to exempt
such investors, which governments understandably refuse to do since
the foreign investor’s tax-exempt status was the result of a foreign gov-
ernment’s policy objective that might differ significantly from that of
the home country. The tax-exempt investor thus has a greater incentive
to invest domestically, thus inhibiting CEN.
Moreover, Easson worried whether tax rules that followed CEN
would unduly discourage outward FDI:
OECD model treaty; see Chapters 10, 11, and 12 in this volume).16 In
particular, the significant difference in tax treatment of dividends and
interest distorts financing decisions and provides an incentive for the
use of aggressive tax-avoidance plans that lead to further distortions of
economic activity. The elimination of withholding taxes on dividends
combined with the denial of deductions for non-arm’s-length pay-
ments, in Easson’s view, would go a long way toward reducing these
tax distortions.
larger tax breaks to the point where the reduction in tax revenues makes
it difficult to fund needed public goods and services. In addition, com-
petition that leads to lower tax burdens on mobile cross-border capital
might increase tax burdens on less-mobile factors of production, such
as workers, leading to an overall more regressive income tax system.
For these reasons, many theoreticians worry that unrestricted tax
competition could reduce national and/or global welfare (see section 4
of this chapter for a discussion of emerging collective action responses
to this policy concern). Due to countries’ historic reluctance to engage
in (binding) multilateral cooperative processes, Easson worried that
this competition ultimately would lead to a tax burden of zero on cross-
border capital (as predicted by many economic models). In fact, over
the course of his career, Easson witnessed an explosion in these tax in-
centives around the world. In 1996, for instance, 103 countries report-
edly offered tax incentives for FDI; a subsequent study showed that
30 to 40 new incentives were being introduced each year until 2002.20
Easson himself saw the growth of incentives in his case studies of the
tax systems of dozens of countries (see also Chapters 3, 5, and 9 in this
volume).21
Why do countries continue to adopt tax incentives despite the clear
theoretical opposition to doing so? Easson offered three main expla-
nations for this apparent puzzle.22 First, governments feel pressure to
offer incentives and maintain a tax-hospitable environment for foreign
investors because ‘everyone else does it.’ Second, policy-makers do not
follow the expert views because they remain unconvinced of many of
the purported problems associated with tax incentives. Government of-
ficials in certain countries have daily experience with foreign investors
who bargain hard to obtain special tax breaks for their investments.
These officials, who are responsible for promoting FDI, often try to take
credit for securing investments through the incentives they offer. Eas-
son recognized that an element of self-deception might surround the
belief in the effectiveness of tax incentives for FDI, but also that one
needs to understand the bureaucratic mindset to promote a fuller un-
derstanding of the reasons tax incentives remain popular with so many
governments.
Third, many governments perceive tax incentives as one of their few
options to attract foreign investors. Developing countries, in particular,
might not have the financial resources to offer grants and low-interest
loans to foreign firms. Moreover, in such countries, it is often costly
to improve infrastructure or politically infeasible to fight corruption
to make the environment more amenable for foreign firms. Easson ob-
Taxing Foreign Direct Investment 25
served that ‘[b]y contrast, tax holidays can be introduced at the stroke
of a pen, and at no apparent cost.’23
While recognizing that some types of taxes can have more influence
than others over investment decision-making, Easson somewhat unu-
sually focused on the effect of tax administration on FDI flows.24 Eas-
son argued that, although it might not play a major part in the initial
decision to invest, a country’s tax administration can be decisive in the
choice of whether to re-invest or expand the initial investment. Once
the initial investment has taken place, investors learn over time wheth-
er the tax laws will be applied in an arbitrary or inconsistent manner
(they also learn whether their investments can attract special tax breaks
or pre-approvals through advance tax rulings). If the investment cli-
mate is hampered by tax uncertainty promoted by incompetent or cor-
rupt tax officials, investors might become reluctant to risk more capital.
Easson challenged the prevailing wisdom, however, when it came to
the use of special incentives versus general corporate income tax rate
reductions to attract FDI. The conventional story is that, to the extent
tax plays a role in investment decisions, it is the general features of
the host country’s tax system that are more important to potential in-
vestors than the special incentives. Easson noted that the only tax that
might have an effect on foreign investors is the actual tax they will be
required to pay, whether the rate is a ‘standard’ corporate income tax
rate or a ‘special’ rate for investments in, say, manufacturing (see Chap-
ter 5). From his survey of how different tax systems attract FDI and the
responses of investors to these efforts, Easson concluded that it mat-
tered little whether the tax incentive was offered through the standard
or special rate.
Easson reframed the debate by asking: given the existence of a rea-
sonable general tax system, do special incentives still have a role to play
in influencing cross-border investment flows?25 He noted, for instance,
an excessive revenue loss could result from a reduction in overall cor-
porate income tax rates to attract FDI (and mainly promote a windfall
benefit to all existing investors). Whether a special tax incentive is pre-
ferred is a ‘difficult question to answer’ that depends on the circum-
stances of the would-be host country and the types of investment it
hopes to attract (see Chapter 3).
In Easson’s view, the use of tax incentives to attract FDI will remain
an important aspect of the international tax policy positions of many
26 Arthur J. Cockfield
Once the target investment or investor has been decided upon, a se-
ries of considerations needs to be factored into the design of a tax incen-
tive. Should the reform of tax laws focus on corporate income tax rates
alone or aspects of the tax base or both? Should a tax holiday be offered
instead? Easson was pessimistic that tax holidays could be effective (see
also Chapter 6 in this volume). He noted a number of disadvantages,
including the revenue losses associated with the holiday, the fact that
many foreign firms move their operations once the holiday expires, the
delaying of expenditures by firms until after the end of the holiday pe-
riod so that the expenses can be deducted from taxable profits, and the
formation of new companies – rather than the expansion of operations
– to take advantage of additional holidays. In his view, the tax holiday
is ‘an extremely crude instrument that is ill suited to achieve most of the
objectives for which it is granted.’28
Once the design features of a tax incentive have been put forward,
governments need to implement the incentive properly. Administrative
considerations include the need to promote automatic or discretion-
ary entitlement to the incentive and the possibility of advance rulings
on potential foreign investments. Additional administrative steps are
needed to monitor compliance to anticipate and prevent abuse of the
tax rules, including phenomena such as ‘round-tripping’ (where do-
mestic investment is disguised as foreign investment to take advantage
of the incentive) and ‘fly-by-night operations’ (where foreign investors
shift their investments to another country as soon as the tax incentive
expires).
Administrative considerations are of particular importance in devel-
oping countries, where poorly designed tax incentives can do the most
harm. Easson noted:
For these reasons, Easson discussed how tax laws that provide for FDI
incentives in developing countries should possess three characteristics:
simplicity, predictability, and stability.30
28 Arthur J. Cockfield
International tax law and policy differs from other areas of public in-
ternational law, such as trade, because countries generally have refused
to engage in traditional international law-making via multilateral co-
operation that could impose binding tax rules on the participants (see
also Chapters 7 and 12 in this volume). Indeed, over time, as they have
reduced their non-tax barriers to international trade and investment
through binding multilateral agreements, countries have become corre-
spondingly more keen to protect their tax sovereignty – one of the few
remaining measures over which they can exert near complete political
control. Another challenge arises from the fact that certain countries
currently benefit (or at least they perceive they are benefiting) from the
tax competition, and those that perceive net economic losses or other
detriments if competition were to be tamped down invariably will re-
sist these measures.
Nevertheless, since the 1990s, there have been ongoing reform ef-
forts to address these challenges through enhanced cooperation among
national governments.31 Easson generally supported efforts to impose
limited constraints on international tax laws but, as explored in the next
section, he also feared that the interests of developing countries could
be harmed to the extent that they were downplayed or ignored in the
reform process.
Most prominently, since 1998 the OECD’s tax competition project has
sought to curtail the use of income tax systems to attract a particular
type of FDI – namely, mobile financial and other services investments
(see Chapter 7 in this volume).32 First, the OECD tried to inhibit the de-
ployment of ‘preferential tax regimes’ by Member States and drafted a
list of tax measures in these countries that allegedly infringed its rules:
the OECD now claims that no Member States are now non-conforming.
More recently, the OECD has targeted the ‘harmful tax practices’ of
tax havens, drafting an initial ‘blacklist’ of thirty-five tax havens. Over
time, the OECD project has come to emphasize the need for tax system
transparency along with tax information exchanges between OECD
member countries and these tax havens; in 2002, the OECD created a
model cross-border tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) to be
used as the basis of negotiation for similar agreements between OECD
Member States and non-OECD states.
Taxing Foreign Direct Investment 29
5.0 Conclusion
Alex Easson’s many scholarly contributions in the area of tax and for-
eign direct investment make possible only a brief summary of some of
Taxing Foreign Direct Investment 31
Notes
1 He summarized many of his views in two main works. See Alex Easson,
Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment (The Hague: Kluwer Law Inter-
national, 2004); and idem, Taxation of Foreign Direct Investment: An Introduc-
tion (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1999).
2 See David Williams, ‘Book Review of Taxation in the European Community
by A.J. Easson’ (1994) 19 European L.R. 337. The two books were A.J. Eas-
son, Tax Law and Policy in the EEC (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1980);
32 Arthur J. Cockfield
14 Ibid. at 301. In contrast to the taxation of FDI, Easson suggested that for-
eign-source portfolio income should continue to be taxed on a residence-
based basis along with credits for foreign taxes paid to the source country.
15 See Council Directive of 23 July 1990 on the common system of taxation
applicable in the case of parent companies and subsidiaries of different
Member States (90/435/EEC).
16 Easson, ‘Company Tax Reform’ at 303.
17 Easson, Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment at 3 [emphasis in origi-
nal].
18 Ibid. at 12–33.
19 Ibid. at 102.
20 Ibid. at 85.
21 See, for example, A.J. Easson, The Design of Tax Incentives for Direct Invest-
ment: Some Lessons from the ASEAN Countries (Toronto: Ontario Centre for
International Business, 1993); Alex Easson and David Holland, Taxation
and Foreign Direct Investment: The Experience of the Economies in Transition
(Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1995);
Alex Easson, ‘Duty-Free Zones and Special Economic Zones in Central and
Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union’ (1998) 16 Tax Notes Int’l 445
(examining the use of tax incentives, duty-free zones and special economic
zones to attract FDI); Howell H. Zee et al., Vietnam: An Assessment of the
Major Taxes (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2004) (assess-
ing five areas of Vietnam’s tax system, including corporate income tax and
investment tax incentives).
22 See Easson, Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment at 85–7.
23 Ibid. at 86.
24 Ibid. at 59–60.
25 Ibid. at 81.
26 A.J. Easson, ‘Tax Competition and Investment Incentives’ (1997) 2 EC Tax
J. 63 (arguing that there is greater justification for the use of tax incentives
by less-developed countries, at least for a limited period, than by devel-
oped countries).
27 See, especially, Alex Easson, ‘Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment,
Part I: Recent Trends and Countertrends’ (2001) 55 Bulletin for Int’l Fiscal
Documentation 266 (reviewing the types of investments that tax incentives
are designed to attract); idem, ‘Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Invest-
ment, Part II: Design Considerations’ (2001) 55 Bulletin for Int’l Fiscal
Documentation 365 (analysing the inefficient and ineffective design char-
acteristics of various types of tax incentives).
28 For an evaluation of tax holidays, see Easson, Tax Incentives for Foreign
34 Arthur J. Cockfield
Direct Investment at 134–142 (concluding that tax holidays are among the
least effective and least efficient of all types of tax incentives).
29 A.J. Easson, ‘Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment in Developing
Countries’ (1992) 9 Australian Tax Forum 435 (analysing the types of tax
incentives that are most likely to be successful in attracting FDI to devel-
oping countries).
30 Ibid. at 435–7.
31 For a general review of external constraints, see, for example, Easson, Tax
Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment at 199–229.
32 For discussion, see, for example, Easson, ‘Harmful Tax Competition: The
EU and OECD Responses Compared’ (1998) 3 EC Tax J. 1.
33 See Easson, Tax Incentives for foreign Direct Investment at 200–7.
34 A.J. Easson, ‘State Aid and the Primarolo List’ (2001) 5 EC Tax J. 111; idem,
‘Harmful Tax Competition: An Evaluation of the OECD Initiative’ (2004)
34 Tax Notes Int’l 1037 (concluding that the project is failing its original
objective to constrain preferential tax regimes).
35 Easson, ‘Harmful Tax Competition: The EU and OECD Responses Com-
pared’ at 13.
36 See Alex Easson, ‘Do We Still Need Tax Treaties?’ (2000) 54 Bulletin for Int’l
Fiscal Documentation 623.
37 See Easson, ‘Harmful Tax Competition: An Evaluation’ at 1062–3.
38 Ibid. at 1045.
39 See Easson, Tax Incentives for Foreign Direct Investment at 200.
40 Easson, ‘Tax Competition and Investment Incentives’ at 87.
3 China’s Tax Incentive Regime for
Foreign Direct Investment:
An Eassonian Analysis
1.0 Introduction
Tax incentives are commonly used as a policy tool to attract and re-
tain foreign direct investment (FDI). As a report by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) puts it, tax incen-
tives are ‘measures designed to influence the size, location or industry
of an FDI investment project by affecting its relative cost or by alter-
ing the risks attached to it through inducements that are not available
to comparable domestic investors.’1 Alex Easson took a broader view,
which we adopt in this chapter, explaining that tax incentives confer
benefits on foreign investors in the form of tax expenditures that repre-
sent a statutorily favourable deviation from the normal benchmarks of
a country’s tax system.2 Compared to direct financial incentives, such
as loan schemes, grants, and subsidies,3 tax or fiscal incentives are a
more realistic policy tool for developing countries with which to attract
FDI, because there is no immediate need for governments to find cash
to fund relevant new investment projects (see also Chapter 2 in this
volume).4
China was neither an exception nor a laggard in granting tax incen-
tives to promote FDI. Its tax incentive regime took full shape in 1991
with the enactment of the Income Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China
Concerning Enterprises with Foreign Investment and Foreign Enterprises
(hereafter referred to as FEITL).5 Most of the usual forms of tax incen-
tives can be found in this law and its Implementing Rules.6 Some of
the more important included tax holidays and reduced rates for enter-
prises engaged in production; tax refunds for reinvesting profits; accel-
erated depreciation; and a virtual smorgasbord of ‘tax breaks’ for many
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