firm’s effective taxrate be different from its marginaltax
rate? There are at least four reasons:
1.Manyfirms,atleastintheUnitedStates,followdifferent
accounting standards for tax and reporting purposes. For
instance, firms often use straight-line depreciation for
reporting purposes and accelerated depreciation for tax
purposes. As a consequence, the reported income is
significantlyhigherthanthetaxableincome,onwhichtaxes
are based.
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2.Firmssometimes usetaxcreditstoreducethetaxesthey
pay.Thesecredits,inturn,canreducetheeffectivetaxrate
below the marginal tax rate.
- Finally, firms can sometimes defer taxes on income to
future periods. If firms defer taxes, the taxes paid in the
currentperiodwillbeata ratelowerthanthemarginaltax
rate. In a later period, however, when the firm pays the
deferredtaxes,theeffectivetaxratewillbehigherthanthe
marginal tax rate.
4.Thestructureofthetaxratesistieredwiththefirstlayers
ofincometaxedatlowerratesthanthesubsequentlayers.As
aresult,theeffectivetaxratebasedonthetotaltaxafirm
pays will be lower than the marginal tax rate.
Themarginaltaxratesvaryacrosscountries,thoughthereis
much less divergence than there used to be in earlier periods.
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Marginal Tax Rates for Multinationals