Taxation Research Group

News and Events

Excursion parliament and meet & greet with the Minister of Finance

No less than thirty of our MBA students with taxation as their main subject voluntarily signed up for an extracurricular daytrip to Brussels, the heart of Belgian politics.

The aim of this trip was to provide the students with more thorough insights into the interplay between taxation and politics. Thanks to all cooperating instances, we were able to offer the students a guided tour in the Belgian federal house of parliament in the morning and a meet and greet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem in the afternoon.

Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast 2023 (February 2023)

Auteur(s): Prof. dr. Em. Paul Beghin, Prof. dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof. dr. Isabelle Verleyen

Vennootschapsbelasting toegepast benadert de materie van de vennootschapsbelasting gestructureerd en op een originele manier. De auteurs combineren het juridische uitgangspunt met interessante bedrijfseconomische inzichten. De band tussen het boekhoudrecht en het fiscaal recht wordt geïllustreerd met talloze voorbeelden en verwijzingen naar de rechtspraak.

Dit boek geeft een duidelijke schets van het toepassingsgebied van de vennootschapsbelasting, het bepalen van het belastbaar inkomen, aftrekbare en niet-aftrekbare beroepskosten. Voorts wordt uitgelegd hoe de belastbare grondslag wordt bepaald en hoe men de verschuldigde vennootschapsbelasting berekent. Tot slot wordt aandacht besteed aan de verrekening van voorheffingen en belastingkrediet, aan de verschillende tarieven en aan de bijzondere aanslagstelsels. De combinatie van theorie en talrijke voorbeelden maakt dit handboek uitermate interessant als studieboek voor het hoger onderwijs en als referentiewerk voor praktijkmensen die geregeld in aanraking komen met de dagelijkse toepassing van vennootschapsbelasting.

De combinatie van theorie en talrijke voorbeelden maakt dit handboek uitermate interessant als studieboek voor het hoger onderwijs en als referentiewerk voor praktijkmensen die geregeld in aanraking komen met de dagelijkse toepassing van de vennootschapsbelasting.

Registration open - Ghent Conference on International Taxation

We are pleased to inform you that the registration for the Ghent Conference on International Taxation (27-28 April) is now open. You can find the preliminary schedule attached to this message. Please click here to register before 20 April.

We like to remind you of the deadline for paper submissions. Please submit your full paper or extended abstract (3 to 5 pages) to TaxationConference@UGent.be in Word or PDF format by Monday, 16 January 2023. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out early March.

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Ghent!

Kind regards,

The organizing committee

Annelies Roggeman

Isabelle Verleyen

Dave Goyvaerts

Residential seminar 2022

On October 27 and 28, we organized the twelfth edition of our two-day Residential Seminar for the students Business Administration with Taxation as main subject. Armed with a suitcase full of tax knowledge, 46 tax students hit the road to Knokke at the Belgian coast. In addition to the students, we also welcomed many enthusiastic representatives from seven consulting firms (A. Coppin & Atacs, Deloitte, EY, Mazars, PwC, Titeca Pro Accountants & Experts and Vandelanotte) in Knokke.

Each of the seven participating firms drew up a realistic business case and subsequently supervised a team of 6 or 7 students working on their case. On the second day, the student teams presented their final result to a jury of Ghent University lecturers as well as experts from the field.

We look back on a successful edition for the students, the participating firms as well as for ourselves! On to next year!

Call for Papers - Ghent Conference on International Taxation

The Taxation Research Group at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Ghent University is proud to invite you to the first edition of the Ghent Conference on International Taxation, which will take place on 27 and 28 April 2023 in Ghent, Belgium.
The aim of this conference is to provide scholars working on international taxation research from a (business) economics point-of-view with the opportunity to share and discuss their recent work. Topics may include, but are not limited to: tax avoidance, reporting, compliance, transparency, harmonization, and managerial decisions.
Each presenter will receive individual comments on their research project from a discussant. Additionally, feedback will
be received from the attendees, keynote speakers, and organizers in a friendly atmosphere.

Keynote speakers

We are happy to announce that our two keynote speakers for this edition will be:

Prof. Dr. Eva Eberhartinger
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Prof. Dr. Michael Overesch
University of Cologne

Submission guidelines
Please submit your full paper or extended abstract (3 to 5 pages) to TaxationConference@UGent.be in Word or PDF format by Monday, 16 January 2023. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in early March.

Conference registration
The registration fee of €75 will cover all catering and social
events during the conference. More details regarding
registration will follow soon. Click here to receive updates.

For more information, please contact TaxationConference@UGent.be, or click here to receive updates.

Research visit at Oxford University

Dr. Dave Goyvaerts will join the renowned Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation as a visiting researcher from September 2022.

In Oxford, he will carry out research on the OECD’s “Pillar 2” agreement to reduce international tax avoidance by introducing a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent for large multinational firms. More specifically, he will study the impact of the new agreement on firm value.

The members of the Centre for Business Taxation are considered to be among the world’s foremost experts on this topic, having published several articles and hosted multiple events regarding the Pillar 2 proposal.

We wish Dave good luck!

Wetboek Accountancy en Fiscaliteit 2021-2022: Deel 1 en 2

Auteur(s): Prof. dr. Bertel De Groote, Luc De Meyere, Els De Wielemaker, Stijn Plas, Prof. Stefan Ruysschaert, Prof. dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof. Jan Verhoeye

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8734647

New publication: An ex-ante assessment of the AGI : firm-level evidence from Belgian tax return data

Using confidential tax return data, we provide a unique research setting in which the Belgian notional interest deduction (NID) is replaced by the Allowance for Growth and Investment (AGI) as it is proposed by the European Commission. Our results show that the AGI would be a more viable option from a budgetary view. From a company view, however, introducing an AGI system would increase the probability of a higher effective tax rate (ETR). Especially large companies would be harmed as they would face a 7.6 percentage point higher probability of an ETR increase compared with SMEs. Furthermore, we find that there is a positive relationship between the equity ratio and the increased ETR, which is stronger for large firms compared to SMEs. This is in line with previous studies stating that large firms adjusted more aggressively to the NID by increasing their equity ratio more heavily than SMEs. However, large firms still face an ETR that is on average 10.4 percentage points lower compared with SMEs, indicating that the AGI is insufficient to undo the unequal level playing field between large and small companies.

P. Buyl, A. Roggeman, and I. Verleyen. (2021). An ex-ante assessment of the AGI: firm-level evidence from Belgian tax return data. CESIFO Economic Studies, 68(1),(2022), 46–72. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ifab007

New publication: Political connections and tax avoidance : evidence from Belgium

This paper investigates to what extent politicians influence tax avoidance in Belgium. In order to examine this relationship, a unique dataset is constructed of all political mandates over the period 2004-2015. We find that Belgian companies with (former) politicians on their board of directors have a 3.64% points lower effective tax rate compared to unconnected counterparts. Also, firms having a higher number of politically connected directors or directors who have been active in politics for a longer period of time, face lower tax rates. Overall, our results suggest that companies consider politicians as valuable in applying a tax minimizing strategy.

L. Egghe, A. Roggeman, and I. Verleyen. Political connections and tax avoidance : evidence from Belgium. Accountancy & Bedrijfskunde, 2021(2), 20–31. DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8722382

Doctoral Defence: The impact of thin capitalization rules

On 24/02/2021, Dave Goyvaerts was awarded the degree of doctorate after defending his PhD Thesis titled 'The impact of thin capitalization rules'. His promoters were Prof dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof dr. Bertel De Groote, and Prof Jan Verhoeye.

Executive Summary & PhD Thesis

Doctoral Defence: The impact of corporate tax incentives for business: an analysis based on corporate tax returns

On 25/09/2020, Pieter Buyl was awarded the degree of doctorate after defending his PhD Thesis titled 'The impact of corporate tax incentives for business: an analysis based on corporate tax returns'. His promoters were Prof dr. Annelies Roggeman, Prof dr. Bertel De Groote en Antoine Doolaege.

Executive Summary & PhD Thesis

New publication: The impact of thin capitalization rules on subsidiary financing : evidence from Belgium

In order to prevent excessive profit shifting using internal debt by multinational firms, several countries have introduced thin capitalization rules limiting the deductibility of interests on internal loans. While prior research has consistently found that firms affected by thin capitalization rules reduce their internal debt-to-equity ratio, the means through which this reduction is achieved are understudied. This paper employs a Comparative Interrupted Time Series methodology to identify the short-term effects of newly introduced thin capitalization rules on subsidiaries' financing preferences, using a new dataset of detailed firm-level accounting data. The results indicate a reduction in internal debt and an increase in equity for affected firms, both by an increase in paid-up capital and by an increase in retained earnings. These findings about the way firms react may help lawmakers to estimate impact of future tax regulations.

D. Goyvaerts and A. Roggeman. The impact of thin capitalization rules on subsidiary financing : evidence from Belgium. Economist - Netherlands. (2020). 168(1). p.23-51. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10645-019-09353-x

New publication: What do politicians think of the common consolidated corporate tax base? A Belgian case study

A. Roggeman, P. Van Cauwenberge, I. Verleyen, and C. Carine. (2019). What do politicians think of the common consolidated corporate tax base? A Belgian case study. Accountancy & Bedrijfskunde, (1), 2–20.L. DOI:http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8624428

Older News and Events

Research

Our research group mainly focuses on topics in corporate taxation at the national and international level, which can be related to other disciplines like accounting, finance, management or economics. We deal with the following broad areas:

• Tax incentives for business
• Measures against tax avoidance of multinationals
• Shareholder perceptions of tax avoidance
• Tax avoidance and corporate social responsibility
• Green taxation of companies

A common characteristic of our research is that the research topics have a grounding in real-world practice. Our research strategy is based on sound theoretical frameworks and advanced research methods.