Corporate taxation and firm size: Evidence from Large-Scale Data

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01695
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07050:Public economics and labor economics-related
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Onji Kazuki 大阪大学, 大学院経済学研究科, 教授 (80709858)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 法人課税 / 消費税 / M&A / 企業結合

Outline of Final Research Achievements

(1) One project employed the bunching estimator to examine the impacts of the Japanese value-added tax (VAT) on small enterprises using a large dataset maintained by a private credit rating company. VATs make allowance for small enterprises to ameliorate their administrative burden. We found that many Japanese enterprises clustered below the sales threshold, as observed elsewhere in the world. This suggests that some small firms are manipulating their sales to avoid becoming taxable and facing additional tax-filing costs. (2) Another project investigated the tax incentives in corporate takeovers utilizing an analytical method known as the Matching Maximum Score Estimator. Our finding suggests that one tax benefit of combining businesses is the ability to write off interest expenses by increasing borrowing capacity.

Free Research Field

公共経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

今回の研究で，小規模企業がなんらかの方法を用いて売上高を抑制していることを発見したが，その理由というのが，納税事務負担の増加を避けるためだとの補佐的エビデンスを得た．消費税にインボイス制度という，納税事務負担を増加させる改正が施行される．本研究の結果から，今後，この改正により小規模企業行動の歪みが増加することが懸念される．事務負担をするための対策もとられているとはいえ，実際に度数分布の歪みが増加するかどうか，検証されるべき課題である．