Huge disparities now exist between countries on the amount of tax they take from businesses, according to UHY, the international accounting and consultancy network.

The tax burden on business profits can be more than three times greater in the highest versus the lowest taxed major countries - highlighting just how wide the tax gap is between 'low tax' emerging economies and the majority of 'high tax' developed nations.

For example, analysing highly profitable businesses (defined as making a pre-tax statutory profit of US$100 million per annum) the difference in the amount of tax collected between the highest taxing country surveyed (Japan) and the lowest taxing (Ireland) is US$29.5 million, which means that the same business in Japan would pay over three times more tax than the equivalent business in Ireland.

According to UHY tax professionals, many countries have been reducing their corporate tax rates in a bid to become more competitive and attract highly mobile multinational businesses. The research highlights the need for some countries to work harder to become more attractive to businesses, which are increasingly mobile and are less constrained by geography than at any time in history.

There are also a number of increasingly important economies, such as Dubai (UAE), that do not charge any corporate tax.

UHY tax professionals studied tax data in 21 countries across its international network, including all members of the G8, as well as key emerging economies. Tax professionals based in each country calculated post-tax profits for businesses making annual statutory pre-tax profits of US$100,000, US$1 million and US$100 million.