We analyze the initial corporate response to the 2017 enactment of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (TCJA). The TCJA changed many corporate tax provisions, including a reduction of the corporate statutory tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent effective in 2018 and sweeping changes to the taxation of income earned abroad by U.S. corporations. Based on a sample of U.S. corporate tax returns, we find that corporations accelerated deductions into 2017 and delayed income into 2018, thereby minimizing their taxes. We estimate an income and deduction shifting tax elasticity of –0.11 and 0.08, respectively. Additionally, we study detailed tax returns of 81 large corporations to understand how those changes impacted them.

中文翻译：

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2017-2018 纳税年度对 TCJA 的企业行为反应

我们分析了企业对 2017 年颁布的“减税和就业法案”（TCJA）的初步反应。TCJA 更改了许多公司税规定，包括自 2018 年起将公司法定税率从 35% 降低至 21%，以及对美国公司在海外赚取的收入征税进行全面改革。根据美国企业纳税申报样本，我们发现企业加速扣除到 2017 年并将收入推迟到 2018 年，从而最大限度地减少税收。我们估计收入和扣除转移税收弹性分别为 –0.11 和 0.08。此外，我们研究了 81 家大公司的详细纳税申报表，以了解这些变化如何影响它们。