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Amanda Sonnerfeldt. Photo

Amanda Sonnerfeldt

Senior lecturer, Assistant head Accounting and Corporate Finance, Department of Business Administration

Amanda Sonnerfeldt. Photo

Tax avoidance and state ownership : The case of Sweden

Author

  • Axel Hilling
  • Frederik Lundtofte
  • Niklas Sandell
  • Amanda Sonnerfeldt
  • Anders Wilhelmsson

Summary, in English

We propose a simple theoretical model for how a company with both private and state shareholders decides on its optimal tax policy. The model predicts that even in the absence of state shareholding, a company will not always pick a tax policy that minimizes taxes. Conversely, majority state ownership will generally not result in zero tax avoidance. Using panel regressions on the entire population of state-owned as well as publicly listed Swedish companies from 2000–2019, we find that a one standard deviation increase in state ownership increases corporate tax payments by around 14%.

Department/s

  • Lund Tax Academy
  • Department of Business Law
  • Accounting and Corporate Finance
  • Department of Business Administration
  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2021-09-01

Language

English

Publication/Series

Economics Letters

Volume

208

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Economics
  • Law

Keywords

  • Tax avoidance
  • Ownership structure
  • State ownership
  • H26
  • G32

Status

Published

Project

  • Tax reporting for a sustainable society

Research group

  • Lund Tax Academy

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0165-1765