Free-Trade Taxation and Protectionist Taxation

Joel Slemrod

NBER Working Paper No. 4902
Issued in October 1994
NBER Program(s):   ITI   PE

This paper explores the normative theory of international taxation by recasting it in parallel with the theory of international trade. It first sets out a definition of 'free trade taxation,' first in the global context and then in the unilateral context. It then evaluates against this standard the existing international tax regime and the U.S. international tax policy, and characterizes which aspects of tax policy are free trade and which are protectionist, differentiating the 'predatory protectionism' of tax havens and the 'ownership protectionism' of tax policies that favor domestically- resident multinational corporations.

(337 K)

Published: International Tax and Public Finance, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 471-489, November 1995

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