[{"department":[{"_id":"187"}],"series_title":"TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 203","user_id":"97894","_id":"61491","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"keyword":["Check-the-box","Legal Form","Tax Complexity","Tax Misperception","Behavioral Taxation","Tax Advice"],"type":"working_paper","status":"public","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"We examine behavioral frictions in entrepreneurs’ tax planning when choosing between corporate and partnership taxation under a check-the-box rule. Using German tax return data, we show that only a small fraction of entrepreneurs opt for corporate taxation, despite substantial potential tax savings. A pre registered incentivized online experiment demonstrates that complexity aversion, status quo bias, and misperception about the corporate tax burden—arising from the interaction of corporate and deferred dividend taxation—help explain the preference for partnership taxation. We further find that these behavioral frictions heighten liquidity risk under the corporate system, particularly in the face of unexpected cash flow needs. Finally, a survey of German tax advisors indicates that tax advice only partially mitigates these frictions. Some advisors misperceive the benefits of corporate taxation, while others anticipate client biases and therefore refrain from recommending the corporate tax system."}],"author":[{"full_name":"Blaufus, Kay","last_name":"Blaufus","first_name":"Kay"},{"first_name":"Ralf","last_name":"Maiterth","full_name":"Maiterth, Ralf"},{"full_name":"Milde, Michael","last_name":"Milde","first_name":"Michael"},{"first_name":"Caren","last_name":"Sureth-Sloane","orcid":" 0000-0002-8183-5901","id":"530","full_name":"Sureth-Sloane, Caren"}],"date_created":"2025-10-01T09:26:32Z","date_updated":"2025-10-01T09:29:57Z","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.5378466","title":"Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice ","publication_status":"published","page":"107","jel":["H25","D91","D22"],"citation":{"apa":"Blaufus, K., Maiterth, R., Milde, M., &#38; Sureth-Sloane, C. (2025). <i>Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice </i>. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466\">https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466</a>","short":"K. Blaufus, R. Maiterth, M. Milde, C. Sureth-Sloane, Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice , 2025.","mla":"Blaufus, Kay, et al. <i>Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice </i>. 2025, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466\">10.2139/ssrn.5378466</a>.","bibtex":"@book{Blaufus_Maiterth_Milde_Sureth-Sloane_2025, series={TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 203}, title={Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice }, DOI={<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466\">10.2139/ssrn.5378466</a>}, author={Blaufus, Kay and Maiterth, Ralf and Milde, Michael and Sureth-Sloane, Caren}, year={2025}, collection={TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 203} }","ama":"Blaufus K, Maiterth R, Milde M, Sureth-Sloane C. <i>Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice </i>.; 2025. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466\">10.2139/ssrn.5378466</a>","ieee":"K. Blaufus, R. Maiterth, M. Milde, and C. Sureth-Sloane, <i>Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice </i>. 2025.","chicago":"Blaufus, Kay, Ralf Maiterth, Michael Milde, and Caren Sureth-Sloane. <i>Choosing the Wrong Box? Behavioral Frictions and Limits of Tax Advice in Tax Regime Choice </i>. TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 203, 2025. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466\">https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5378466</a>."},"year":"2025"},{"status":"public","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"This study analyzes the impact of tax complexity on the location of tax employees and tax risk. Using a hand-collected dataset of more than 7,500 tax employees from 348 European-listed multinationals, we identify two types of firm-level costs associated with tax complexity—tax employees, and tax risk. We find that firms locate more tax employees in countries with greater tax complexity. This association is particularly pronounced for complexity in tax procedures. We also find that multinationals operating in countries with high tax complexity are associated with higher tax risk. The incremental tax risk vanishes for firms that locate more tax employees in countries with highly complex tax procedures, while we find no risk reduction from additional tax employees in countries with complex tax rules. Our results reveal that multinationals eliminate 25 percent of overall tax complexity-related tax risk through targeted location of tax employees."}],"type":"working_paper","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"keyword":["tax complexity","tax complexity cost","tax department","tax employees","tax risk"],"department":[{"_id":"187"}],"user_id":"530","series_title":"TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 149","_id":"49873","citation":{"chicago":"Giese, Henning, Reinald Koch, and Caren Sureth-Sloane. <i>Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications</i>. TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 149, 2024. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151\">https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151</a>.","ieee":"H. Giese, R. Koch, and C. Sureth-Sloane, <i>Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications</i>. 2024.","ama":"Giese H, Koch R, Sureth-Sloane C. <i>Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications</i>.; 2024. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151\">10.2139/ssrn.4888151</a>","apa":"Giese, H., Koch, R., &#38; Sureth-Sloane, C. (2024). <i>Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications</i>. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151\">https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151</a>","short":"H. Giese, R. Koch, C. Sureth-Sloane, Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications, 2024.","mla":"Giese, Henning, et al. <i>Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications</i>. 2024, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151\">10.2139/ssrn.4888151</a>.","bibtex":"@book{Giese_Koch_Sureth-Sloane_2024, series={TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 149}, title={Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications}, DOI={<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4888151\">10.2139/ssrn.4888151</a>}, author={Giese, Henning and Koch, Reinald and Sureth-Sloane, Caren}, year={2024}, collection={TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency Working Paper Series No. 149} }"},"year":"2024","publication_status":"published","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4888151","main_file_link":[{"open_access":"1","url":"https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4888151"}],"title":"Where to Locate Tax Employees? The Role of Tax Complexity and Tax Risk Implications","author":[{"first_name":"Henning","full_name":"Giese, Henning","id":"92812","last_name":"Giese"},{"last_name":"Koch","full_name":"Koch, Reinald","first_name":"Reinald"},{"first_name":"Caren","orcid":" 0000-0002-8183-5901","last_name":"Sureth-Sloane","full_name":"Sureth-Sloane, Caren","id":"530"}],"date_created":"2023-12-19T13:22:08Z","oa":"1","date_updated":"2024-12-07T14:13:15Z"},{"abstract":[{"text":"All over the world, firms and governments are increasingly concerned about the rise in tax complexity. To manage it and develop effective simplification measures, detailed information on the current drivers of complexity is required. However, research on this topic is scarce. This is surprising as the latest developments—for example, triggered by the BEPS project—give rise to the conjecture that complexity drivers may have changed, thus questioning the findings of prior studies. In this paper, we shed light on this issue and provide a global picture of the current drivers of tax complexity that multinational corporations face based on a survey of 221 highly experienced tax practitioners from 108 countries. Our results show that prior complexity drivers of the tax code are still relevant, with details and changes of tax regulations being the two most influential complexity drivers. We also find evidence for new relevant complexity drivers emerging from different areas of the tax framework, such as inconsistent decisions among tax officers (tax audits) or retroactively applied tax law amendments (tax enactment). Based on the responses of the practitioners, we develop a concept of tax complexity that distinguishes two pillars, tax code and tax framework complexity, and illustrates the various aspects that should be considered when assessing the complexity of a country’s tax system.","lang":"eng"}],"file":[{"content_type":"application/pdf","relation":"main_file","success":1,"date_created":"2018-04-06T07:48:31Z","creator":"hoppet","date_updated":"2018-04-06T07:48:31Z","file_id":"2253","file_name":"Hoppe Schanz Sturm Sureth-Sloane 2017.pdf","access_level":"closed","file_size":1077359}],"keyword":["Complexity Drivers","International Comparison","Survey","Tax Complexity","Tax Practitioners"],"ddc":["330"],"language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"year":"2017","title":"What are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries","date_created":"2018-04-06T07:44:59Z","status":"public","type":"working_paper","file_date_updated":"2018-04-06T07:48:31Z","_id":"2250","project":[{"grant_number":"P01","name":"Der Einfluss von steuerlicher Regulierung auf multinationale Unternehmen","_id":"37"}],"department":[{"_id":"187"},{"_id":"635"}],"user_id":"68607","page":"28","jel":["H20","H25","C83","O57"],"citation":{"short":"T. Hoppe, D. Schanz, S. Sturm, C. Sureth-Sloane, What Are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries, 2017.","bibtex":"@book{Hoppe_Schanz_Sturm_Sureth-Sloane_2017, title={What are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries}, DOI={<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546\">10.2139/ssrn.3046546</a>}, author={Hoppe, Thomas and Schanz, Deborah and Sturm, Susann and Sureth-Sloane, Caren}, year={2017} }","mla":"Hoppe, Thomas, et al. <i>What Are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries</i>. 2017, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546\">10.2139/ssrn.3046546</a>.","apa":"Hoppe, T., Schanz, D., Sturm, S., &#38; Sureth-Sloane, C. (2017). <i>What are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries</i>. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546\">https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546</a>","ieee":"T. Hoppe, D. Schanz, S. Sturm, and C. Sureth-Sloane, <i>What are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries</i>. 2017.","chicago":"Hoppe, Thomas, Deborah Schanz, Susann Sturm, and Caren Sureth-Sloane. <i>What Are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries</i>, 2017. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546\">https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546</a>.","ama":"Hoppe T, Schanz D, Sturm S, Sureth-Sloane C. <i>What Are the Drivers of Tax Complexity for Multinational Corporations? Evidence from 108 Countries</i>.; 2017. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3046546\">10.2139/ssrn.3046546</a>"},"publication_identifier":{"issn":["1556-5068"]},"has_accepted_license":"1","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3046546","main_file_link":[{"url":"https://ssrn.com/abstract=3046546","open_access":"1"}],"date_updated":"2022-01-06T06:55:34Z","oa":"1","author":[{"first_name":"Thomas","id":"22671","full_name":"Hoppe, Thomas","last_name":"Hoppe"},{"last_name":"Schanz","full_name":"Schanz, Deborah","first_name":"Deborah"},{"first_name":"Susann","last_name":"Sturm","full_name":"Sturm, Susann"},{"last_name":"Sureth-Sloane","full_name":"Sureth-Sloane, Caren","id":"530","first_name":"Caren"}]}]