What Determine the Corporate Tax Rates During the COVID-19? Evidence From 113 Countries

Abstract

Fiscal policy implications become an important tool to soften the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given this backdrop, this paper analyses the drivers of corporate tax rates during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., in 2020 and 2021). The results from 113 advanced and developing economies show that a higher level of the COVID-19-related uncertainty is positively associated with the corporate tax rates. Similarly, the country size (measured by total population) increases the corporate tax rates. Per capita income is negatively related to the corporate tax rates, but this evidence is insufficient to consider different estimation techniques. The paper also discusses potential fiscal policy implications for the driving mechanism of corporate tax rates for the post-COVID-19 era.