Does tax competition for capital define entrepreneurship trends in Еastern Еurope?

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of relationships between tax competition and entrepreneurship development in Eastern European and Baltic countries during 2006-2017. Incomplete nature of tax systems reforming in these countries forms preconditions for their participation in cross-country tax competition in investment flows reallocation. The main instrument of the tax competition includes tax rates, which are defined by convergence tendencies in the studied countries. Other factors of the research are tax burden levels on the enterprise, tax administration indices and macroeconomic indicators. The entrepreneurship development at the country’s level is characterized by a number of new businesses, the duration of their life cycle and their liquidation indices. The calculations results show that higher levels of absolute tax rates for enterprises lead to the reduction of their creation volumes in the country’s economy. High level of the tax burden partially restrains entrepreneurial activity. Tax administration plays a significant role in the provision of the country’s tax competition. Time to pay taxes and the number of tax payments have a great impact on entrepreneurship development at different stages. The hypothesis is proved that tax factors impact on the entrepreneurial activity is reasonable to be observed within the context of the country’s macroeconomic conditions.