ABSTRACT
Multinational enterprises (MNE) and (family) business groups are often used as negative examples in public and populist discourses about tax morality. Such companies are thus cited as using (or abusing) low tax rates to offshore their tax residence in order to reduce their tax burden or avoid taxation at large. However, this perception underestimates that legal and political frameworks were designed by nation states and that tax reduction is only one of many corporate objectives. Using the examples of production-based multinationals from the German chemical industry (Bayer and BASF) and a portfolio business group (Thyssen-Bornemisza-Group), we investigate the motivations and international business structures used to reduce taxes since the 1950s. Against the background of accelerating economic globalisation, the possibilities and requirements for tax optimisation – not least as a form of cost reduction – have increased since the 1970s. When international tax regulations changed again in the 1980s, MNE and family business groups adapted their financial strategies and closed their Caribbean subsidiaries. In the case of Thyssen-Bornemisza's global investment group, the securitisation and flexible management of property rights were the core motivation for their relocations during the 1970s. Hence, only with regard to financial matters did companies from different sectors follow the same logic to reduce costs by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by tax havens.
