Impact of corporate tax aggressiveness on firm value: evidence from India

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taruntej Singh Arora ◽  
Suveera Gill

PurposeThere is mixed evidence in the extant literature on the firm value implications of corporate tax aggressiveness in the developed economies. There are, however, limited studies that discuss this relationship in the case of emerging economies. The present study aims to bridge this research gap by exploring the relationship between corporate tax aggressiveness and firm value in context of the Indian economy.Design/methodology/approachThe sample comprises 547 S&P BSE 500 (Standard and Poor's Bombay Stock Exchange 500) Index companies for Financial Year (FY) 2009–10 through FY 2018–19. A fixed-effects panel model has been used to discern the impact of corporate tax aggressiveness on firm value with and without the moderating effect of a proxy for corporate governance strength.FindingsThe results highlight a significant negative relationship between corporate tax aggressiveness and firm value in India, whilst the analysis on the moderating effect of corporate governance strength on this relationship revealed a mix of significant and insignificant results. These results were robust to an alternate specification of the corporate governance strength proxy, the system GMM estimation employed to deal with endogeneity and a change in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) regulation brought into effect by the Companies Act, 2013.Originality/valueThe study reveals a firm value discount associated with corporate tax aggressiveness in India which is likely due to its ability to increase opportunities for wealth expropriation by managers. This can further be attributed to the ineffective corporate governance mechanisms that make agency problems more severe in the case of emerging economies like India.

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Effiezal Aswadi Abdul Wahab ◽  
Akmalia M. Ariff ◽  
Marziana Madah Marzuki ◽  
Zuraidah Mohd Sanusi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between political connections and corporate tax aggressiveness in Malaysia. In addition, this paper investigates the relationship between corporate governance variables and corporate tax aggressiveness. Next, the study investigates the mitigating role of corporate governance in the relationship between political connections and corporate tax aggressiveness. Design/methodology/approach The sample of this study is based on 2,538 firm-year observations during the 2000-2009 periods. This study employs a panel least square regression with both period and industry fixed effects. The study retrieved the corporate governance variables from the downloaded annual reports, whilst the remaining data were collected from Compustat Global. Findings This study finds that politically connected firms are more tax aggressive than non-connected firms. Furthermore, the study finds that large board size decreases the likelihood of tax aggressiveness and a non-linear relationship exists between institutional ownership and tax aggressiveness suggesting increase in monitoring as the ownership increases. However, the study finds no evidence to suggest that corporate governance mitigates the influence of political connections in promoting tax aggressiveness behavior. The findings suggest that the impact of political connections could outweigh the benefits of changes in corporate governance in Malaysia. Research limitations/implications The data are not recent, but it reflects a rather longitudinal research period. Originality/value This paper extends the literature of tax research in Malaysia which is in its’ infancy stage. Furthermore, it investigates the role of political connections in tax-planning research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nufazil Altaf

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between net working capital and firm value for a sample of 2,483 firms across 16 Asian countries. In addition, this study also examines the impact of degree of financial development and law enforceability on net working capital-firm value relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on secondary financial data of 2,483 Asian firms obtained from Bloomberg database, pertaining to a period of five years. This study employs the fixed effects approach to arrive at results.FindingsResults of the study confirm a strong negative relationship between net working capital and firm value. In addition, the author also found that the negative relationship between net working capital and firm value to be strong for countries that have a high degree of financial development and law enforceability.Originality/valueUnlike prior studies, this study examines the relationship between net working capital and firm value. In addition, this study also tests the impact of degree of financial development and law enforceability on this relationship. To the best knowledge, no such study has been conducted in the Asian context.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 597-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nirmala Devi Mohanadas ◽  
Abdullah Sallehhuddin Abdullah Salim ◽  
Lim Kwee Pheng

Purpose This study aims to examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and corporate tax aggressiveness relate in Malaysia, an emerging economy in Southeast Asia. It also seeks to analyse how CSR performance in community, environment, marketplace and workplace themes relate to the tax aggressiveness of listed companies in this country. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses 182 companies listed in the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia from 2010 to 2012 using fixed-effects panel regression and ordinary least square regression. It uses current effective tax rate as a proxy for corporate tax aggressiveness and measures CSR performance using specially developed CSR performance disclosure index. Findings This study finds no statistical support that CSR performance is related to corporate tax aggressiveness in Malaysia. Similarly, there are no statistically significant relationships between environment-related and marketplace-related CSR performance and corporate tax aggressiveness. Nevertheless, community-related CSR performance has significant negative relationship with corporate tax aggressiveness. Workplace-related CSR performance meanwhile has significant positive relationship with corporate tax aggressiveness. Originality/value This study expands the current literature's focus on developed economies by examining the relationship between CSR and corporate tax aggressiveness in the setting of an emerging Asian economy, i.e. Malaysia. It is also the first empirical study focussing on this relationship among Malaysian listed companies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Hamid Ullah ◽  
Hamid Ali Shah ◽  
Sajjad Ahmad Khan

This study extends the literature on tax aggressiveness (TA) from agency perspectives in the rarely discussed case of group firms. More specifically, the study investigates the relationship between firms TA, tunnelling and value of firm. Moreover, the study also investigates the impact of the moderating role of corporate governance (CG) in counterfeiting the conflicts of interests in group firms. For this purpose, sample data of 160 non-financial Pakistani firms belonging to groups for the period from 2009 to 2018 is analyzed through two Stages Least Square Regression (2SLS) models. The findings reveal that tunneling, group ownership and managerial ownership show direct association with TA. While CG agents, board and audit committee independence and external audit quality exhibits an indirect relationship with TA. Moreover, the tunneling-related TA has a negative effect on the firm value. However, the estimated interaction effects show that CG mitigates this negative relationship between the tunneling-related TA and firm value. Thus, good CG ameliorates the expropriations by the controlling shareholders and TA becomes a value enhancing activity in business groups.   Keywords: Tax Aggressiveness, Firm Value, Business Groups, Corporate Governance, External Audit Quality    


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Richardson ◽  
Grantley Taylor ◽  
Roman Lanis

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of women on the board of directors on corporate tax avoidance in Australia. Design/methodology/approach The authors use multivariate regression analysis to test the association between the presence of female directors on the board and tax aggressiveness. They also test for self-selection bias in the regression model by using the two-stage Heckman procedure. Findings This paper finds that relative to there being one female board member, high (i.e. greater than one member) female presence on the board of directors reduces the likelihood of tax aggressiveness. The results are robust after controlling for self-selection bias and using several alternative measures of tax aggressiveness. Research limitations/implications This study extends the extant literature on corporate governance and tax aggressiveness. This study is subject to several caveats. First, the sample is restricted to publicly listed Australian firms. Second, this study only examines the issue of women on the board of directors and tax aggressiveness in the context of Australia. Practical implications This research is timely, as there has been increased pressure by government bodies in Australia and globally to develop policies to increase female representation on the board of directors. Originality/value This study is the first to provide empirical evidence concerning the association between the presence of women on the board of directors and tax aggressiveness.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Mohammed Al-Masawa ◽  
Rasidah Mohd-Rashid ◽  
Hamdan Amer Al-Jaifi ◽  
Shaker Dahan Al-Duais

Purpose This study aims to investigate the link between audit committee characteristics and the liquidity of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Malaysia, which is an emerging economy in Southeast Asia. Another purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of the revised Malaysian code of corporate governance (MCCG) on the link between audit committee characteristics and IPO liquidity. Design/methodology/approach The final sample consists of 304 Malaysian IPOs listed in 2002–2017. This study uses ordinary least squares regression method to analyse the data. To confirm this study’s findings, a hierarchical or four-stage regression analysis is used to compare the t-values of the main and moderate regression models. Findings The findings show that audit committee characteristics (size and director independence) have a positive and significant relationship with IPO liquidity. Also, the revised MCCG positively moderates the relationship between audit committee characteristics and IPO liquidity. Research limitations/implications This study’s findings indicate that companies with higher audit committee independence have a more effective monitoring mechanism that mitigates information asymmetry, thus reducing adverse selection issues during share trading. Practical implications Policymakers could use the results of this study in developing policies for IPO liquidity improvements. Additionally, the findings are useful for traders and investors in their investment decision-making. For companies, the findings highlight the crucial role of the audit committee as part of the control system that monitors corporate governance. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this work is a pioneering study in the context of a developing country, specifically Malaysia that investigates the impact of audit committee characteristics on IPO liquidity. Previously, the link between corporate governance and IPO liquidity had not been investigated in Malaysia. This study also contributes to the IPO literature by providing empirical evidence regarding the moderating effect of the revised MCCG on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and IPO liquidity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nemiraja Jadiyappa ◽  
Bhanu Sireesha ◽  
L. Emily Hickman ◽  
Pavana Jyothi

Purpose Prior literature demonstrates that the effectiveness of bank monitoring decreases when multiple banks are involved, due to a free rider problem, leading to lower firm value. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether this free rider problem exists in an emerging market context, and whether the relationship between multiple banking relationships and firm value is conditioned on bankers’ incentives to monitor. Design/methodology/approach The authors use multivariate panel regression to examine the hypotheses. The conditioning effect of the incentive to govern (the amount of average bank lending) is modeled using an interaction variable. Based on the result of the Hausman test, the authors employ two-way fixed effects estimator to estimate the coefficients. Findings First, the negative relationship between multiple banking relationships and firm value holds true among Indian firms. Second, the authors show that this negative relationship is lessened for firms with high average bank debt or higher free cash flows. The analyses suggest that these moderating effects are related to a reduction in the free rider problem rather than a decrease in financial constraints. However, these results are only significant among larger firms. Originality/value Prior literature has not considered the conditioning impact of the “incentives to govern” when examining the free rider problem, inherent in situations where multiple actors are involved. The authors show in this study that the free rider problem disappears when the incentives to govern are considered in the overall research framework.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1272-1291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Forte ◽  
José Miguel Tavares

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature on the relationship between debt and firms’ performance, by focusing on the influence of the institutional framework on this relationship and on the role of macroeconomic variables in explaining performance. Design/methodology/approach The present work is based on a large sample of 48,840 manufacturing firms from nine European countries covering the 2008–2013 period and uses a fixed effects model. Findings Results show that the impact of debt on a firm’s performance depends on the measure of debt (short-term debt positively affects a firm’s performance, whereas long-term debt presents a negative relationship) and that the institutional framework is indeed affecting the relationship between debt and a firm’s performance: the positive effect of debt on a firm’s performance tends to be higher the greater the “efficiency of the legal system” and the greater the “credit market regulation.” Macroeconomic variables also play a key role in explaining performance. Originality/value Unlike most of the existing studies, which focus only on the relationship between debt and firms’ performance in a single country, the present work uses a sample of firms from nine countries with the purpose of filling a research gap and bringing new empirical evidence to this research area.


Author(s):  
Mohamed H. Elmagrhi ◽  
Collins G. Ntim ◽  
Richard M. Crossley ◽  
John K. Malagila ◽  
Samuel Fosu ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which corporate board characteristics influence the level of dividend pay-out ratio using a sample of UK small- and medium-sized enterprises from 2010 to 2013 listed on the Alternative Investment Market. Design/methodology/approach The data are analysed by employing multivariate regression techniques, including estimating fixed effects, lagged effects and two-stage least squares regressions. Findings The results show that board size, the frequency of board meetings, board gender diversity and audit committee size have a significant relationship with the level of dividend pay-out. Audit committee size and board size have a positive association with the level of dividend pay-out, whilst the frequency of board meetings and board gender diversity have a significant negative relationship with the level of dividend pay-out. By contrast, the findings suggest that board independence and CEO role duality do not have any significant effect on the level of dividend pay-out. Originality/value This is one of the first attempts at examining the relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy in the UK’s Alternative Investment Market, with the analysis distinctively informed by agency theoretical insights drawn from the outcome and substitution hypotheses.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed H. Elmagrhi ◽  
Collins G. Ntim ◽  
Yan Wang

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, good corporate governance (CG) practices among UK publicly listed firms and consequently ascertain whether board characteristics and ownership structure variables can explain observable differences in the extent of voluntary CG compliance and disclosure practices. Design/methodology/approach This study uses one of the largest data sets to-date on compliance and disclosure of CG practices from 2008 to 2013 containing 120 CG provisions drawn from the 2010 UK Combined Code relating to 100 UK listed firms to conduct multiple regression analyses of the determinants of voluntary CG disclosures. A number of additional estimations, including two stage least squares, fixed-effects and lagged structures, are conducted to address the potential endogeneity issue and test the robustness of the findings. Findings The results suggest that there is a substantial variation in the levels of compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG practices among the sampled UK firms. The authors also find that firms with larger board size, more independent outside directors and greater director diversity tend to disclose more CG information voluntarily, whereas the level of voluntary CG compliance and disclosure is insignificantly related to the existence of a separate CG committee and institutional ownership. Additionally, the results indicate that block ownership and managerial ownership negatively affect voluntary CG compliance and disclosure practices. The findings are fairly robust across a number of econometric models that sufficiently address various endogeneity problems and alternative CG indices. Overall, the findings are generally consistent with the predictions of neo-institutional theory. Originality/value This study extends, as well as contributes to, the extant CG literature by offering new evidence on compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG recommendations contained in the 2010 UK Combined Code following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. This study also advances the existing literature by offering new insights from a neo-institutional theoretical perspective of the impact of board and ownership mechanisms on voluntary CG compliance and disclosure practices.


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