Évitement fiscal des entreprises : faut-il réagir ?

Le titre de ce billet se veut un brin provocateur ! C’est une chronique publiée au Fimancial Post de John M. Mintz qui me l’a inspiré : « Multinational corporate tax confusion« . Même si l’article prête à la critique (comme fonder la réaction suite à certains scandales sur un simple jeu politique de séduction), il est effectivement tant qu’un peu de cohérence prenne le pas face aux initiatives individuelles des États et des entreprises (en dernioer lieu Amazon).

Extrai de l’article :

All this suggests that tax avoidance through international profit shifting is not a general problem. Some companies have made it a practice to drive down their worldwide effective tax rates to close to zero, often taking advantage of tax incentives provided by governments themselves. If readers find all this pretty complex, imagine the poor voter who is confronted with populist politics calling for higher corporate taxes. When companies like Amazon are reported to be paying insufficient tax, it leads to reputational effects, not only in terms of lost sales but also government retribution. Some companies therefore make decisions to reduce reputational effects by leaving money on the table by paying some tax in each jurisdiction, as in the case of Amazon. Others try to provide more information, perhaps through advocacy organizations, to improve public tax literacy (a hard game to play). Others batten down, arguing they comply with existing law. Given these reputational effects, corporate taxes are unfair in application since some, like retail companies, are in a worse position than others to take advantage of government investment incentives. So what is best corporate tax policy? The old adage — keep rates low and bases broad — applies here. More neutrality among companies is appropriate to reduce distortions. If this means international tax policy to reduce some tax avoidance, so be it. The integrity of the tax system is undermined when companies make voluntary payments to governments and others don’t. We should instead strive for a coherent and competitive corporate tax system.

À la prochaine…

Ivan Tchotourian

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 23 juin 2015 à 12 h 06 min.