Comparative analysis of corporate tax burden in the euro area during 2000-2013

Traditionally, some countries have been using the Corporate Income Tax as a way of, starting from relatively high nominal tax rates, encourage certain economic activities through incentives or bonuses that allow considerably reduce actual business taxation. In contrast, other member states have chosen to directly lower the tax rate, regardless of other incentives, thus bringing the nominal taxation to effective. This research aims to analyze the discrepancies in the taxation of corporate income tax between different Eurozone countries for the period 2000-2013, noting the differences between the statutory (STR) and effective tax rates (ETR) of listed companies. In this way, this work locates the idea of the European Commission to adopt a common corporate tax in its current context, determining which countries exercise greater fiscal pressure on the results of their companies.