Excess Profit Taxes: Historical Perspective and Contemporary Relevance

This paper discusses the design of excess profits taxes (EPTs) that gained renewed interest following the COVID-19 outbreak and the recent surge in energy prices. EPTs can be designed as an efficient tax only falling on economic rent, like an allowance for corporate capital, and drawing some paralle...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hebous, Shafik
Other Authors: Prihardini, Dinar, Vernon, Nate
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2022
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 03366nmm a2200625 u 4500
001 EB002138286
003 EBX01000000000000001276413
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 230104 ||| eng
020 |a 9798400221729 
100 1 |a Hebous, Shafik 
245 0 0 |a Excess Profit Taxes: Historical Perspective and Contemporary Relevance  |c Shafik Hebous, Dinar Prihardini, Nate Vernon 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 2022 
300 |a 37 pages 
651 4 |a United States 
653 |a Economic & financial crises & disasters 
653 |a Revenue administration 
653 |a Economics 
653 |a Private Pensions 
653 |a Labour 
653 |a Corporate taxes 
653 |a Public finance & taxation 
653 |a Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits 
653 |a Taxes 
653 |a Corporations 
653 |a Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Firm 
653 |a Economics: General 
653 |a Fiscal Policy 
653 |a Informal sector 
653 |a Non-wage benefits 
653 |a Labor 
653 |a Economics of specific sectors 
653 |a Corporate income tax 
653 |a Currency crises 
653 |a Business Taxes and Subsidies 
653 |a Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General 
653 |a Employee fringe benefits 
653 |a Allowance for corporate equity 
653 |a Corporate & business tax 
653 |a Corporate Taxation 
653 |a Macroeconomics 
653 |a Taxation 
653 |a Public Finance 
653 |a Income economics 
653 |a Revenue 
700 1 |a Prihardini, Dinar 
700 1 |a Vernon, Nate 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b IMF  |a International Monetary Fund 
490 0 |a IMF Working Papers 
028 5 0 |a 10.5089/9798400221729.001 
856 4 0 |u https://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2022/187/001.2022.issue-187-en.xml?cid=523550-com-dsp-marc  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a This paper discusses the design of excess profits taxes (EPTs) that gained renewed interest following the COVID-19 outbreak and the recent surge in energy prices. EPTs can be designed as an efficient tax only falling on economic rent, like an allowance for corporate capital, and drawing some parallels with current proposals for reforming multinationals’ taxation. EPTs can be permanent or temporary as an add-on to the corporate income tax to support revenue during an adverse shock episode. The latter reflects experiences with EPTs during and after the World Wars. Different from that era, though, profit shifting is now a challenge. Estimation using firm-level data suggest that, at present, locations of excess profit across countries are consistent with profit shifting practices by multinationals. Destination-based EPTs can address this concern. Estimates suggest that a 10 percent EPT on the globally consolidated accounts of multinationals (on top of the current corporate income tax), with the EPT base being allocated using sales, raises global revenue by 16 percent of corporate income tax revenues. The analysis suggests that international coordination would be desirable to mitigate the risks of profit shifting and tax competition. Eventually, EPTs could mark an evolution of corporate taxation toward a non-distortionary rent tax