Monopolists` profit tax evasion revisited: When firms have objectives other than maximizing profit

Abstract

This article revisits the issues of neutrality and separability for a monopolistic firm. It is shown that as long as the monopolistic firm has objectives other than maximizing profit, then in general: (1) profit taxes will not be neutral, and (2) the firm`s production and evasion decisions will not be separable from each other. The authors argue that the nonneutrality result of profit taxes is quite robust; however, there are plausible exceptions to the nonseparability result of profit taxes. © SAGE Publications 2011.