BY PAT BRESLIN, BATES WHITE ECONOMIC CONSULTING P erhaps it is neither the best of times nor the worst of times, but tension is building between multinational companies and tax authorities residing in various capitals around the world, particularly where tax and technology issues intersect. From Paris to London, from Bombay to Beijing, and from Tokyo to Washington, D.C., there is intense scruti...

This paper examines the effects of limitations on the excludability of employerprovided health insurance from taxable income on the pricing policies of insurance companies. Concentrating on the demand side, standard analysis (e.g., Congressional Budget Office, 1994) would suggest that individuals previously purchasing above the limitation would reduce their level of coverage, while those below ...

We study several important tax-related issues related to the measurement and use of corporate marginal tax rates. First, we develop an AR(1) method to simulate corporate marginal income tax rates and demonstrate that the AR(1) model improves upon the extant random walk and bin approaches. The new AR(1) approach captures firm-specific features, including mean-reversion in taxable income. Second,...

This paper analyzes dividend remittances by a large panel of foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms. The dividend policies of foreign affiliates, which convey no signals to public capital markets, nevertheless resemble those used by publicly held companies in paying dividends to diffuse common shareholders. Robustness checks verify that dividend policies of foreign affiliates are little...

historically, the islamic state collected zakat (similar to the tithe of other regions) as national income. in indonesia, the private sector can raise zakat funds more effectively than the government. in 2010, zakat became tax-deductible income. this paper tries to analyze some factors that affect preference for zakat as a tax deduction in indonesia. the effectiveness of the regulation is also ...