This study examines whether the tax incentives of home-country shareholders influence the organizational form changes of foreign operations. While a corporation and a limited company (LC) in South Korea are treated the same for Korean tax purposes, an LC can be treated as a pass-through entity for U.S. tax purposes. This tax treatment of LCs can create incentives for U.S. owners to convert their Korean corporations to LCs. We find that private corporations owned by U.S. shareholders are more likely to convert to LCs than those owned by non-U.S. shareholders. We also find that the tax costs and benefits of conversion affect the likelihood of LC conversion for U.S.-owned firms. Overall, our results suggest that multinational corporations use organizational form changes as a tool for international tax strategies.

本研究考察了母国股东的税收优惠是否会影响海外业务的组织形式变化。虽然韩国的公司和有限公司 (LC) 在韩国税收方面被视为相同，但在美国税收方面，LC 可以被视为传递实体。这种对 LC 的税收待遇可以激励美国所有者将其韩国公司转换为 LC。我们发现，美国股东拥有的私人公司比非美国股东拥有的私人公司更有可能转换为 LC。我们还发现，转换的税收成本和收益会影响美国公司转换信用证的可能性。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，跨国公司将组织形式的变化作为国际税收战略的工具。