Corporate taxation in Denmark and the international challenge

We study the development in the Danish corporate income tax base and the corporate income tax revenue in the period from 1990 until present. Measured in per cent of GDP the CIT base has out-paced the revenue due to parallel CIT rate cuts and base broadening reforms. We seek to explain the development in the CIT base and discuss whether this is threatened by base erosion and profit shifting.

Describing the development in the CIT tax base is a comprehensive and complex task and to pin-point one single cause is not possible. But it is possible to point to elements which have contributed to the development. We conclude that there exists a challenge in terms of international tax competition but find no evidence of the Danish CIT base suffering from this. The challenge for policy makers is designing a tax system which on one side secures sufficient revenue and on the other hand is internationally competitive.