企业组织形态的税收洼地效应

Abstract

This paper examines the tax avoidance effects of enterprise organizational forms against the backdrop of lowered market entry barriers. Exploiting the 2014 commercial registration reform in China as a quasi-natural experiment, we use matched data from national industrial and commercial registrations, tax surveys, and firm recruitment data from 2012 to 2014 to analyze the reform's impact on the market entry and tax payment behavior of sole proprietorship enterprises. We find that the commercial reform promoted the entry of sole proprietorships, although these enterprises maintained a small scale; this effect was driven by reduced registration thresholds and an increased number of administrative licenses. Following entry, these enterprises exhibited declining actual tax burdens and a rise in tax-related violations, indicating a tax avoidance intent. Analyzing equity linkages reveals that the reform increased intra-group connections without creating employment or boosting investment, thereby weakening the reform's social benefits. This highlights an important aspect of tax administration for specific enterprise organizational forms.