税收优惠政策与企业注册地和经营地的分离

Tax Incentives and the Separation of Firms'Registration Addresses and Business Addresses

本文利用中国企业工商注册数据和网络招聘数据,研究了企业通过分离注册地和经营地来避税的行为。研究发现,企业注册地和经营地的分离普遍存在,例如,实际经营在上海崇明区的企业只占当地注册企业数量的3%。基于注册地的税收优惠是导致该现象的重要原因:企业可以在不改变经营地的情况下,改变注册地以获取税收优惠。基于前海深港现代服务业合作区的双重差分法显示,前海合作区的税收优惠政策导致31%—41%的企业分离注册地和经营地;2016年5月1日营业税改增值税后,前海合作区的税收优惠吸引力下降,上述分离行为减少近1/3。企业注册地和经营地的普遍分离,可能导致地区统计数字反映的是注册经济而非实体经济;也可能导致基于注册地址的税收优惠政策难以直接促进实体经济发展,相关优惠政策应该关注企业的实际经营地。

This paper uses Chinas business registration data and online recruitment data to inves-tigate firmstax avoidance by separating their registered and operating addresses.This paper finds that the separation of firmsregistration addresses and business addresses is widespread;for in-stance,only 3%of registered firms in Chongming,Shanghai are really operating there.Tax in-centives based on registered addresses are an important reason.The difference-in-differences(DID)method shows that the tax incentives in Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Co-operation Zone cause 31%—41%of firms to separate their registered and operating addresses,and this separation decreases by nearly 1/3 after the change of business tax to value-added tax.The prevalence of the separation may lead to fraud statistics and may also fade the effect of tax policies targeted at firmsregistration addresses..Therefore,tax preferential policies should focus on firmsbusiness addresses.