Abstract: Improving resource allocation efficiency is a key pathway to achieving high-quality economic development. VAT reform, by optimizing the tax burden structure and guiding factor flows, plays an important institutional role in mitigating resource misallocation among enterprises. Based on the data from the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2014 to 2024, this study empirically analyzes the impact and mechanisms of the VAT rate simplification policy on corporate resource misallocation from the perspective of makeup rate distribution. The results show that this policy has significantly reduced the dispersion of firms’ markup rates, narrowed tax burden differences, and effectively mitigated resource misallocation. The mechanism analysis reveals that, from the perspective of production factors, the extent of input tax deduction is a key factor in weakening the factor wedge caused by tax burdens. The VAT rate simplification policy affects upstream firms’ tax burdens and alters downstream firms’ input tax deduction space, thereby influencing the resource allocation of the downstream firms. From an efficiency perspective, improving the supply chain efficiency helps reduce the adverse effects of the efficiency wedge and promotes the optimal reallocation of resources along the industrial chain. In the future, China should continue to improve the input VAT deduction mechanism to enhance corporate resource allocation efficiency, optimize supply chain efficiency by addressing efficiency wedges from the supply side to effectively alleviate corporate resource misallocation, and rationally configure the VAT tax burden structure to enhance the integrity and neutrality of the tax system.

Key words: VAT reform, VAT rate simplification, corporate tax burden, corporate resource misallocation, markup rate distribution