Strategizing Multinational Tax Risks

The 2017 World Intellectual Property Report was recently issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a biennial report, and provides some interesting findings that are important to understand as US tax reform and other countries are now focusing on the taxation of intangibles and the income resulting therefrom:

First-ever figures reveal that nearly one third of the value of manufactured products sold around the world comes from “intangible capital,” such as branding, design and technology, according to a WIPO study of the global value chains companies use to produce their goods.

Some WIPR 2017 findings

• Intangible capital accounted, on average, for 30.4 percent of the total value of manufactured goods sold throughout 2000-2014.
• The intangible capital share rose from 27.8 percent in 2000 to 31.9 percent in 2007, but has remained stable since then.
• Overall, income from intangibles increased by 75 percent from 2000 to 2014 in real terms, amounting to USD 5.9 trillion in 2014.
• Three product groups – food products, motor vehicles and textiles – account for close to 50 percent of the total income generated by intangible capital in the manufacturing global value chains.

References to the Report and summaries are provided for reference:

http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2017/article_0012.html

Click to access wipo_pub_944_2017-intro1.pdf