Impact de la fiscalité des entreprises sur la localisation des investissements à l'échelle européenne

Abstract

Nowadays, the corporate income tax has become a sensitive issue due to the distortions that may create the diversity of tax policies in the European Union. The impact of these divergences in tax policies might be translated into relocation of investments within more attractive countries. This thesis examines first the evolution of the corporate tax rates and the development of the tax bases of the countries in the European Union. This part has shown that there are a lot of discrepancies between the EU15 and the new member States. These countries have chosen a tax policy based on base broadening and a decrease of their corporate tax rates. Whereas, countries of the UE 15 seem to have opted for higher tax rates applied on a narrow base. Nevertheless, several projects such as « BEPS » and « ACCIS », requested by the European Union, tend to provide a guide line for all the Member States regarding their tax policies. Then, this dissertation focuses on the foreign direct investment. The main purpose was to find out the factors that can affect the decision-making process regarding relocation. It appeared that the corporate tax was a factor among others such as labor cost, infrastructure quality,... However, there is still a question unanswered : what matter the most regarding the decision of relocation, the tax rate or tax expenditures ?