An empirical examination of the influence of e-commerce on tax avoidance in Europe

This paper reports an empirical analysis of the influence of e-commerce business practices on tax avoidance. Using a sample of European parent firms in the retail trade industry from 22 different countries, we find empirical evidence that e-commerce firms are significantly more tax avoidant than tra...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Argilés Bosch, Josep M.; Somoza López, Antonio; Ravenda, Diego; García Blandón, Josep
Format: Article
Status:Accepted version
Publication date:2020
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/172728
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/172728
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Comerç electrònic
Impostos
Indústria
Comerç al detall
Electronic commerce
Taxation
Industry
Retail trade
Description
Summary:This paper reports an empirical analysis of the influence of e-commerce business practices on tax avoidance. Using a sample of European parent firms in the retail trade industry from 22 different countries, we find empirical evidence that e-commerce firms are significantly more tax avoidant than traditional firms. However, as the latter have increasingly sought to avoid paying taxes over the period studied, the gap between the two firm types has been reduced. Our results are robust to different specifications of tax avoidance, time, and sample selection criteria.