Assessment of the international competitiveness of the corporate profit tax in Ukraine

Abstract

The article is devoted to assessing the international competitiveness of the corporate profit tax system based on the approach of the US Tax Foundation, which develops International Tax Competitiveness Index of the corporate profit tax (ICI) and takes into account the level of profit tax rates, cost recovery, tax incentives and complexity of tax law. According to the analysis of the international ranking of OECD countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary had the highest ICIs in 2019-2020. The main factors that have had a positive effect on their competitiveness are the low top marginal income tax rate, unlimited loss carryback and carryforward, no restrictions on the list of assets subject to depreciation, as well as the use of accelerated depreciation, which allows companies to compensate for a larger share of the initial value of assets, LIFO inventory or at least inventory by the weighted average cost method, no Patent Box; no tax credit for R&D, and low corporate profit tax complexity. The calculation of the ICI for Ukraine, based on the approbation of the methodological approach of the Tax Foundation, found that in 2019-2020 Ukraine with a total score of 55.07 took 24th place out of 35 OECD countries. The author characterizes the main components of Ukrainian corporate profit taxation in terms of their impact on international competitiveness; in addition, ways to increase ICI are substantiated.