Such tax planning need not involve the relocation of economic hardware
like direct investments or jobs; it can be achieved through the shifting of
paper profits. One of the most common methods of tax planning is to
set intra-company cross-border transfer prices so that income accrues in
a low-tax country and expenses in a high-tax country. The diversion of profits to low-tax countries often involves CFCs – corporations owned
wholly or to a significant extent by non-residents of a low-tax country.
Income can be retained in these entities in order to make use of deferral
and gain tax benefits. Setting up such ‘letterbox’ companies is attractive
because they enable taxpayers to establish residence in one country and
ensure that their income is taxable in the respective low-tax country. CFCs
also play a role in so-called treaty shopping. In this case, the CFC is used as
a pass-through entity to reap the benefits of a DTA to which one otherwise
would not have access (see Arnold and McIntyre, 1995: 8–17). These and
other tax planning schemes channel income into jurisdictions with only an
artificial connection to the real economic activity that should be the target
of taxation.