Taxation of corporate groups under a corporation income tax: An interdisciplinary and comparative tax law analysis.

Corporate groups are notoriously difficult to tax. At the moment it is not clear whether corporate groups should be approached as single taxable entities, or whether a separate tax existence should be attributed to corporate group members. The current ambiguity generates a substantial deadweight loss. This study determines what may be the best approach to tax corporate groups, once the perspectives of government and corporate groups are taken into account. The study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, whereby elements, such as market imperfections, the economic, legal and functional nature of corporate groups and the rules of related regulatory fields, are brought into the investigation. The study is based on the US federal corporate income tax system, although, for certain issues, the UK tax system is analyzed. The study adopts a closed economy perspective. The study shows that the design and operation of the corporate income tax system is subject to several constraints and distortions, and argues that to simply look at how far a certain policy is from optimality may be insufficient to determine whether an incremental improvement occurs. The study proposes a new approach to corporate income tax policy whereby the pursuit of incremental improvements requires the minimization of transaction costs and other sources of deadweight loss and the taking into account of the collateral effects of the corporate income tax system, including its interaction with market imperfections, the behavioural and operational nature of business entities, the frictions imposed by other regulatory fields and corporate governance. Following this policy approach, the study concludes that treating corporate groups as single taxable entities is the best approach to tax corporate groups and recommends a revision of certain technical aspects of the current US and UK legislation for taxation of corporate groups