US Taxation of Foreign Income

Since 1992, new issues have arisen in international taxation—for example, taxation of electronic commerce, novel means of shielding passive income, the World Trade Organization (WTO) debate over the foreign sales corporation and subsequent passage of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, the problem of corporate inversions, and alleged "earnings stripping" by foreign-based multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the United States. In the meantime, US-based MNEs operating abroad have used a variety of methods to cut the effective US tax on repatriated foreign source income to around 2 percent. This revised study analyzes the impact of taxes on industry location and profit shifting using new panel econometric studies. It also discusses and evaluates new paradigms that have been suggested for the international tax system.