Taxation in a mixed economy: the case of China

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davidson Sinclair ◽  
Larry Li
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Corporate Income Tax ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Government Ownership ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
For Profit

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese firms’ ownership structure is related to their effective tax rate. The People’s Republic of China provides an interesting environment to examine the corporate income tax. Government has significant ownership stakes in the for-profit economy and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are liable to the corporate income tax. This is very different to most other economies where SOE tends to dominate the not-for-profit economy and pays no corporate income tax. Government ownership also varies between the central government and local government in addition to state asset management bureaus. This provides a rich institutional background to examining the corporate income tax. Design/methodology/approach A panel data analysis approach is used to examine relationship between ownership structure and effective tax rates of all public firms in China from 1999 to 2009. Findings The authors report that effective tax rates do appear to vary across the ownership types, but that SOEs pay a statistically higher effective tax rate than to non-state-owned. In addition, local government owned SOE pay higher effective tax rates than central government and SAMB owned SOE. The authors also investigate Zimmerman’s (1983) political cost hypothesis. Unfortunately, these results are econometrically fragile with the statistical significance of those results varying by empirical technique. Originality/value This paper provides insight into government ownership and taxation in China.

Strategic Choice of Presentation Format: The Case of ETR Reconciliations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Chychyla ◽  
Diana Falsetta ◽  
Sundaresh Ramnath
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Strategic Choice ◽  
Presentation Format ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Explicit Mention ◽  
Disclosure Strategy ◽  
Minimize Costs

To minimize costs related to unfavorable perceptions of their tax-related activities, firms with low effective tax rates (ETR) could avoid, where possible, explicit mentions of their effective tax rates. Using this reputational cost perspective we study an item of required disclosure in the income tax footnote of the 10-K, the ETR reconciliation table, where firms can choose a presentation format that reveals the tax rate (the percentage format) or one that avoids explicit mention of the effective tax rate (the dollar format). We find that firms with low ETRs are 24 percent more likely to use the dollar format, and are also less likely to mention their tax rates elsewhere in their disclosures, consistent with the choice of dollar format reflecting a firm's overall tax disclosure strategy. Analysts' tax expense forecasts are less accurate for dollar format firms, suggesting higher processing costs associated with tax-related disclosures for these firms.

No woman, no aggressive tax planning? A study on CEO gender and effective tax rates in the Lithuanian retail sector

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aras Zirgulis ◽  
Maik Huettinger ◽  
Dalius Misiunas
Keyword(s):  
Retail Sector ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Tax Aggressiveness ◽  
Female Ceos ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Ceo Gender

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether switching to a CEO of the opposite sex affects the tax aggressiveness of firms.Design/methodology/approachRegression analysis using a difference in difference approach and propensity score matching on a dataset of 8,798 firms from 2007 to 2017.FindingsThe authors find evidence that switching to a female CEO reduces the effective tax rate paid, implying a higher level of tax aggressiveness.Social implicationsThe findings contradict the narrative that female CEOs are less tax aggressive.Originality/valueThe authors are the first (to the best of the authors' knowledge) to specifically investigate if changing the CEO gender has an impact on the effective tax rate paid by the firm.

scholarly journals Determinants of effective Tax Rate of the top 45 Largest listed companies of Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1183-1188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Andreas ◽  
Enni Savitri
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Capital Intensity ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Tax Expense

The capital inflows and outflows of a country are closely related to the established tax rate policy. Tax rate is one of important factors in investment decisions. Evidence that there are variations in effective tax rates amongs firms draw attention of researchers to understand the impact of tax policies on corporate tax burdens (Gupta and Newberry, 1997; Molloy, 1998). Effective tax rate is a dependent variable that is commonly used as a proxy to measure corporate tax burden. This study examined corporate effective tax rates (ETRs) of the top 45 largest listed companies of Indonesia within 2009-2014 (after tax reform of 2008, to be exact). We used two types of ETR1 and ETR2 measures as dependent variables. The first type is the ratio of current income tax expense divided by income before interest and taxes and the second type is the ratio of total income tax expense (current tax expense plus deferred tax expense) divided by income before interest and taxes (Noor et al. 2008).We also used some of independent variables related to firms’characteristics, such as firm size, capital intensity, leverage, returns on assets, and inventory intensity. The statistical results reveal that all independent variables contributed to ETR1 and ETR2 except the capital intensity is not contributed to ETR2. However, the findings provide support for the tax policy on corporate actual tax burdens.

A Study of Perceived Ethicality of Low Corporate Effective Tax Rates

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Todd DeZoort ◽  
Troy J. Pollard ◽  
Edward J. Schnee
Keyword(s):  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
General Public ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Perceived Fairness ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Participant Group

SYNOPSIS U.S. corporations have the ability to avoid paying domestic taxes to achieve an effective tax rate that is much lower than the statutory federal tax rate. This study evaluates the extent that individuals differ in their attitudes about the ethicality of corporations avoiding domestic taxes to achieve low effective tax rates. We also examine the extent to which the specific tax avoidance method used by corporations to access a low effective tax rate affects perceived ethicality. Eighty-two members of the general public and 112 accountants participated in an experiment with two participant groups and three tax avoidance methods manipulated randomly between subjects. The results indicate a significant interaction between participant group and tax avoidance method, with the general public considering shifting profits out of the country to achieve a low effective tax rate to be highly unethical, while the accountants find tax avoidance from carrying forward prior operating losses to be highly ethical. Further, mediation analysis indicates that perceived fairness and legality mediate the effects of participant type on perceived ethicality. Mediation analysis also reveals that sense of fairness and legality mediate the link between tax avoidance method and perceived ethicality. We conclude by considering the study's policy, practice, and research implications.

scholarly journals Beneficial ownership of income as an antiabusive measure in Serbian Tax Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (88) ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Miloš Vasović
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Corporate Income Tax ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Double Taxation ◽  
Current Function ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Treaty Shopping ◽  
Beneficial Ownership ◽  
The One

The Serbian Corporate Income Tax Act contains a provision on the beneficial ownership of income (hereinafter: the BO provision), which is one of the conditions for the application of the preferential tax rate on income tax after tax deduction, which is envisaged in Treaties for the avoidance of Double Taxation on income and capital (hereinafter: Double Taxation Treaties/ DTTs). The subject matter of research in this paper is the term "beneficial ownership", which is not defined in the Corportate Income Tax Act. It may ultimately lead to abusing the preferential tax rates from the DTTs in tax planning and "treaty shopping" through the use of conduit companies. Tax experts have different opinions on the legal nature of the BO provision, which is given the function of an anti-abusive measure (on the one hand) and a rule for the attribution of income (on the other hand). The author analyzes the current function of the BO provision envisaged in the Serbian Serbian Corporate Income Tax Act (CITA), and its inadequate application. The author advocates for enacting the BO provision as an anti-abusive measure, and examines the possible application of the BO provision in domestic tax law, with reference to Articles 10, 11, and 12 of the DTTs that Serbia contracted with other states, as well as Articles 10-12 of the OECD Model-Convention on Income and Capital (2017) and Commentaries on these articles. Such an application of the BO provision may preclude "treaty shopping". In final remarks, the author points out why the BO provision should be envisaged as an anti-abusive measure in Serbian tax law.

Privatization, tunneling, and tax avoidance in Chinese SOEs

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Y.H. Tang
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Government Ownership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Good Corporate Governance ◽  
Privatization Process ◽  
Wealth Expropriation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of ownership structure arising from China’s unique privatization process on listed firms’ tunneling activities and their interaction with tax avoidance. Design/methodology/approach Using hand-collected data on the incompletely restructured state-owned listed firms and their applicable tax rate, this paper conducts a multivariate regression to test research questions. It also employs a triple differences method to examine whether the observed interaction between tax avoidance and tunneling is mitigated for well-governed firms. Findings It documents that controlling shareholders’ tunneling increases as the percentage of shares owned by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) increases. Evidence also shows that the magnitude of tunneling increases when SOEs controlled by the central government engage in more tax avoidance, suggesting that these firms use tax avoidance to facilitate wealth expropriation. Social implications These findings advance the understanding of the tunneling incentive behind the tax avoidance behavior for a subset of Chinese SOEs and have implications for emerging capital markets that are characterized by concentrated government ownership and weak corporate governance. Originality/value This paper is the first paper to investigate the effect of the incomplete privatization process on tunneling and the interaction between tunneling and tax avoidance activities. It extends prior studies by investigating the incentives behind SOEs’ tax avoidance from the perspective of an agency problem and documenting that good corporate governance plays an important role in deterring the diversionary tax avoidance.

Visualization of tax avoidance and tax rate convergence

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 695-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chika Saka ◽  
Tomoki Oshika ◽  
Masayuki Jimichi
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Objective Evidence ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Convergence Trend

Purpose This study aims to explore the evidence of the probability of firms’ tax avoidance and the downward convergence trend of national statutory tax rates and firms’ effective tax rates. Design/methodology/approach This research employs exploratory data analysis using interactive data manipulation and visualization tools, namely, R with SparkR, dplyr, ggplot2 and googleVis (GeoChart and Motion Chart) packages. This analysis is based on the world-scale accounting data of all listed firms from 148 countries spanning 30 years. Findings The results reveal the following: three types of evidences on probability of firms’ tax avoidance, showing a non-random distribution of firms’ effective tax rates and return on assets, cross-sectional variation of firms’ effective tax rates in each country, and the trend of difference between effective tax rates and statutory tax rates, and the downward convergence trend of statutory tax rates and firms’ effective tax rates. Practical implications The results highlight the prominent issues of world-scale tax avoidance and tax rate competition and facilitate a collaborative discussion between laymen and professionals using objective evidence. Originality/value A novel methodology is adopted through the visualization of world-scale accounting data, which can facilitate a new perspective, revealing unexpected patterns and trends in otherwise hidden information. This study also highlights the importance of global consideration of firms’ tax avoidance and tax rate competition, using objective evidence.

2. Ontario's Corporate Income Tax: An Analysis of Effective Tax Rates

1993 ◽  
pp. 43-79
Author(s):  
David Sabourin ◽  
Stephen Gribble ◽  
Michael Wolfson
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Corporate Income Tax ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Effective Tax Rates

An Investigation of the Firm Size—Effective Tax Rate Relation in the 1980s

1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Omer ◽  
Karen H. Molloy ◽  
David A. Ziebart
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Tax Burden ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Sample Composition ◽  
Rate Relation

Given the recent emphasis on effective tax rates by policy makers and accounting researchers, this study investigates the relation between firm size and corporate tax burdens on a yearly and an industry basis. The analysis is conducted using five effective tax measures employed in previous studies in order to determine the degree to which inferences between size and tax burden are robust across these different effective tax measures. The results indicate that the relation is fairly robust across measures and, in instances in which the relation is not upheld by our analysis, sample composition explains differences in the observed relation between firm size and corporate tax burden.

THE COMPARISON OF CORPORATE INCOME TAX IN LATVIA AND LITHUANIA

2017 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Jūlija Ščeglova ◽  
Iveta Mietule
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
The State ◽  
Corporate Income Tax ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
State Budget ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Advance Payment ◽  
Tax Payers

Corporate income tax is one of the important taxes that provide revenues to the state budget. Article contains a comparison between Latvian and Lithuanian existing legislation relating to corporate income tax, studied differences between the tax rates, tax base, tax period and taxpayers. Were described differences that are related to the advance payment calculation, as well as created an example that shows how advance payments are calculated in Latvian and Lithuanian companies. As a result, it was found that there are several common features in the Latvian and Lithuanian legislation, with regard to corporate income tax, for example, the tax payers, taxation period, tax rate, the taxable amount. But there are several differences, such as the nuances of rates for non-residents, depending on the type of revenue, advance payment deadlines and other particularities of the calculation of the advance payments. Also differ corporate income tax payment deadlines. It was concluded that making advance payments in Lithuanian enterprises is more profitable, because it was calculated that at the same conditions, the amount of advances in Lithuania is lower than in Latvia.

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