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Corporate Tax Statistics 2023

 

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Published 21 November 2023

Corporate Tax Statistics 2023, a flagship publication of the OECD, provides comprehensive insights into corporate tax systems and the tax and economic activities of thousands of multinational enterprises operating around the world. It is a key outcome of Action 11 of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project which aims to improve the measurement and monitoring of tax avoidance. The report includes data on corporate tax rates, revenues, effective tax rates, as well as tax incentives for R&D and innovation. This fifth edition also includes two years of anonymised and aggregated country-by-country reporting data, and, for the first time, information on withholding tax rates under tax treaties for member jurisdictions of the OECD and the Inclusive Framework on BEPS.

 

About the database

The Corporate Tax Statistics database is intended to assist in the study of corporate tax policy and expand the quality and range of data available for the analysis of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

The 2015 Action 11 report, Measuring and Monitoring BEPS, highlighted that the lack of quality data on corporate taxation is a major limitation to the measurement and monitoring of the scale of BEPS and the impact of the OECD/G20 BEPS project. Corporate Tax Statistics is an annual publication bringing together a range of valuable information to support the analysis of corporate taxation and base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) practices in over 160 countries and jurisdictions, including all OECD countries. This includes data on corporate tax rates, corporate tax revenues, and for the first time this year, withholding tax rates. The report also contains data on forward-looking effective tax rates, both for standard tax systems and including tax incentives for R&D and innovation. Information on intellectual property regimes is also included in the publication, as well as anonymised and aggregated Country-by-Country Report data providing an overview of the global tax and economic activities of thousands of multinational enterprise groups operating worldwide. While this database is of interest to policymakers from the perspective of BEPS, its scope is much broader. Apart from BEPS, corporate tax systems are important more generally in terms of the revenue that they raise and the incentives for investment and innovation that they create. The Corporate Tax Statistics database brings together a range of valuable information to support the analysis of corporate taxation, in general, and of BEPS, in particular.

The 2023 edition of Corporate Tax Statistics continues to expand the data available to study MNE activity. In addition to the new CbCR data, this year’s edition includes the second release of statistics on Withholding Tax rates, as well as significant increases in the coverage of the effective tax rates and statutory tax rates series. The dataset consists of tax rates on dividends, interest and royalty payments that are applicable as of the 2023 fiscal year. It also for the first time contains data on withholding tax rates under tax treaties, continuing the expansion of Corporate Tax Statistics to provide additional data to tax researchers and policymakers alike. The fifth edition of the database contains ten main categories of data:

  • corporate tax revenues
  • statutory corporate income tax rates
  • action 13 implementation
  • anonymised and aggregated Country-by-Country Report statistics
  • forward-looking effective tax rates
  • tax incentives related to R&D and intellectual property regimes
  • controlled foreign company rules
  • interest limitation rules
  • standard withholding tax rates
  • treaty-based withholding tax rates

 

Understanding the database

The data on statutory corporate tax rates for OECD jurisdictions are sourced from the OECD Tax Database. An explanatory annex for OECD jurisdictions and an explanatory annex for non-OECD jurisdictions contain further information on statutory corporate income taxes for certain jurisdictions.

The methodology for calculating the ETRs is described in detail in the OECD Taxation Working Paper, Corporate Effective Tax Rates: Model Description and Results from 36 OECD and Non-OECD Countries, building on the theoretical model developed by Devereux and Griffith (1999, 2003). Further methodological information is available in the corporate effective tax rates explanatory annex.

The data on corporate tax revenues are sourced from the Global Revenue Statistics DatabaseRead the technical paper on the construction of the Global Revenues Statistics Database: its coverage, sources, strengths and limitations. The database follows the definition of tax in the OECD classification of taxes and Interpretative Guide.

BEPS Action 13 is part of the transparency pillar of the OECD/G20 BEPS project, supporting jurisdictions in combating BEPS. The database contains information on the domestic legal frameworks for Country-by-Country reporting around the world.

Anonymised and aggregated CbCR statistics represent an important new source of data on the global tax and economic activities of multinational enterprises. The statistics are subject to a number of important data limitations, detailed in the disclaimer.

The database contains two sets of indicators that offer a complementary view of the extent of R&D tax support provided through expenditure-based R&D tax incentives. The first set focuses on synthetic tax policy indicators that capture the effect of expenditure-based R&D tax incentives on firms’ investment costs. It contains two new indicators of the effective average tax rate for R&D and the cost of capital for R&D. These indicators are produced by the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation. The methodology is outlined in an accompanying OECD Taxation Working Paper, Corporate Effective Tax Rates for R&D. Further modelling notes are available in an explanatory annex. It complements estimates of implied tax subsidy rates based on the B-Index indicator sourced from the OECD R&D tax incentives database produced by the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation. The second set of indicators, sourced from the OECD R&D tax incentives database, displays the cost of expenditure-based tax incentives to the government together with estimates of direct government support to business R&D.

The data on IP regimes are compiled from information collected by the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices for its peer reviews of preferential regimes.

Data on CFC rules are available for 49 jurisdictions for the year 2019.

Data on interest limitation rules are available for 67 jurisdictions for the year 2019.

Standard withholding tax rates imposed by jurisdictions on payments of dividends, interest, royalties and certain services payments such as technical fees and management fees. 2023 rates are available for 119 jurisdictions.

Treaty-based withholding tax rates on payments of dividends, interest, royalties and certain services payments such as technical fees and management fees. 2023 rates are available for almost 4500 bilateral treaties in place in 131 jurisdictions.

 

Key data

 

Previous editions

 

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