On corporate taxation, national governments are trapped in a race to the bottom. As technology becomes more important to all sectors of the economy, the factors that create economic value — intellectual property, software, computing power — become more mobile. Each country, hoping to retain and attract jobs and investment, adjusts tax policy to attract these intangible (or at any rate mobile) assets. But the situation is unstable: there always seems to be another country ready to undercut whoever is currently offering companies the sweetest deal.
就企業稅收而言,各國政府陷入了「逐底競爭」(race to the bottom)。隨著技術對於所有經濟領域變得越來越重要,創造經濟價值的各個要素——智慧財產、軟體和計算能力——變得更具流動性。希望留住和吸引就業和投資的每個國家都會調整稅收政策,以吸引這些無形(或者具有任何流動性的)資產。但局面並不穩定:無論現在哪個國家爲企業提供最優惠的條件,似乎總有另外一個國家隨時願意提供更優惠的條件。