Methods and rates used to compare corporate tax burden

Abstract

Tax burden is an important factor in investor’s decisions about the allocation of investment. Several methods and rates can be used for comparison of corporate taxation. Statutory corporate income tax rates are not the right indicator for the comparison of the real economic tax burden so effective corporate tax rate are often used for these purpose. Effective corporate income tax rates can be based on three different methods: macro backward looking, micro backward looking or micro forward looking. Differences between the approaches are used due to differences in data and varying degrees of data aggregation. Investors can used for their decisions following tax rates: average tax rate, effective marginal tax rate EMTR or average effective tax rate EATR. EATR seems to be the most accurate rate for comparing the actual corporate tax burden due to its complexity.

Keywords

• statutory and effective tax burden
• average tax rate
• effective marginal tax rate