The scale of corporate tax avoidance

How big is profit shifting? How much tax revenue is lost globally and in your country? The biggest challenge when estimating the scale of profit shifting is to establish a credible counter-factual of how profits would be distributed across countries in the absence of profit shifting. Generally, researchers assume that the location of MNEs’ real economic activity should be a good proxy for where profits are generated. The search for appropriate measures of real economic activity and methods to account for existing productivity differentials across countries or industries has frequently been hindered by the lack of reliable data. Still, researchers have produced a variety of profit shifting estimates. This page presents a selection of the most recent studies.

Download data and explanatory notes

• Estimates of profit shifting and tax revenue losses. [data table]

Read more about the estimates

• Álvarez-Martínez et al. (2021). How large is corporate tax base erosion and profit shifting? A general equilibrium approach. [research summary]
• García-Bernardo & Janský (2021). Profit Shifting of Multinational Corporations Worldwide. [research summary]
• Tax Justice Network (2021). The state of tax justice 2021. [research summary]
• Tørsløv et al. (2020). The Missing Profits of Nations. [research summary]
• Janský & Palanský (2019). Estimating the scale of profit shifting and tax revenue losses related to foreign direct investment. [research summary]
• Cobham & Janský (2017). Global distribution of revenue loss from tax avoidance: re-estimation and country results. [research summary]