Code for Corporate Minimum Tax and the Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence from Administrative Tax Records

We examine business responses to a minimum tax that prescribed fixed floors on corporate tax liability while also permitting minimum tax credit carry-forwards. Using 2010-2020 tax-return administrative data on all Slovak corporations, we find that a mass of companies immediately relocated from reporting zero taxable income towards bunching at the new tax floors. We infer the ETI to be between 0.33 and 2.28 across VAT and turnover categories and quantify the marginal efficiency burden of the corporation tax. Given limited extensive-margin business responses, our evidence suggests that the minimum tax reduced the overall efficiency burden while raising additional tax revenue.

我们研究了企业对最低税（minimum tax）的反应——该税制对企业纳税义务设定固定下限，同时允许最低税收抵免结转（minimum tax credit carry-forwards）。利用2010-2020年斯洛伐克所有企业的纳税申报行政数据，我们发现大量企业立即从申报零应税收入转向聚集于新的税制下限。我们推断，跨增值税（VAT）和营业额类别，应税收入弹性（ETI）介于0.33至2.28之间，并量化了企业税的边际效率负担。鉴于企业在广延边际（extensive-margin）的反应有限，我们的证据表明，最低税在增加额外税收收入的同时降低了整体效率负担。