Examining Tax Strategy Choice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stevanie S. Neuman
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Tax Planning ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Research ◽  
Reputational Costs ◽  
Distinct Approach ◽  
Strategy I

Most recent tax research examines the level of firms' effective tax rates (ETRs), focusing on tax avoidance. However, theoretical work and research on book-tax tradeoffs and reputational costs indicate some firms have other tax planning goals. Moreover, anecdotal evidence suggests consistent tax outcomes are important; therefore, the volatility of ETRs may be an alternative aspect of firms' tax planning. In this study, I find some firms utilize a second, distinct approach to tax strategy - maintaining low ETR volatility - by documenting systematic differences in firm characteristics associated with each tax strategy approach and a predictable shift in characteristics when firms change tax strategies. In combination, these results identify at least two distinct approaches to tax strategy. I also find firms exhibiting low ETR volatility earn significantly higher median buy-and-hold returns than firms exhibiting low ETR levels, consistent with benefits to alternative tax strategies.

An Examination of Reputational Costs and Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Firms with Valuable Consumer Brands

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Rae Austin ◽  
Ryan J. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Reputational Costs

ABSTRACT We expect firms with the greatest exposure to reputational damage among consumers will engage in lower levels of tax avoidance to minimize unwanted scrutiny that could impair the firms' reputation. We identify a set of firms with valuable consumer reputation using Harris Interactive's EquiTrend survey, which surveys consumers about their perceptions of valuable and prominent brands. We find evidence in support of our hypothesis that firms with valuable brands will engage in less tax avoidance. Specifically, we find a positive and significant association between our measure of reputation and both the GAAP and cash effective tax rates (measured over one and three years). We find mixed evidence on whether there is a negative and significant association between reputation and the probability the firm is engaging in tax sheltering.

The Incidence, Valuation and Management of Tax-related Reputational Costs: Evidence from a Period of Protest

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan S. Dhaliwal ◽  
Theodore H Goodman ◽  
P.J. Hoffman ◽  
Casey M Schwab
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Abnormal Returns ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Political Costs ◽  
Time Invariant ◽  
Media Sentiment ◽  
Reputational Costs

We examine the incidence, valuation and management of tax-related reputational costs during 2011, a year of extensive social protest that temporarily increased scrutiny of corporate tax avoidance. We report three main results. First, tax avoidance is positively associated with negative media sentiment during the protest period (i.e., 2011). Second, a hedge portfolio long (short) in low (high) tax avoidance firms generates positive abnormal returns during the protest period. Third, firms experiencing the largest reputational costs during the protest period report higher tax rates in subsequent years. Supplemental analyses indicate tax-related media coverage increased during the protest period, and that the results are unlikely driven by political costs or other time-invariant firm characteristics. Our findings suggest that tax-related reputational costs are not pervasive. Instead, these costs only occur during periods of unusually high scrutiny, which helps explain prior studies' difficulties in providing large-sample evidence of tax-related reputational costs.

Joint Audit Engagements and Client Tax Avoidance: Evidence from the Italian Statutory Audit Regime

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro A. Bianchi ◽  
Diana Falsetta ◽  
Miguel Minutti-Meza ◽  
Eric Weisbrod
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Professional Networks ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Professional Network

ABSTRACT Under the Italian statutory audit regime, three individual accountants are jointly appointed to audit each client's annual financial statements and sign off on the tax return. These individuals can belong to the same or different accounting firms and through multiple and repeated collaborations they form a professional network. We use network measures of centrality to capture individuals' ability to acquire and apply tax expertise across clients. We demonstrate that clients engaging better-connected individual auditors have comparatively lower effective tax rates. Our results are robust to controlling for a number of client, individual, and accounting firm characteristics, as well as for alternative network connections between clients. We also use instrumental variables, individual fixed effects, and matching to mitigate the effect of endogenous pairing of clients and auditors. Our findings demonstrate that in a joint audit environment, individual auditor professional networks have consequences for tax outcomes. Data Availability: Data are obtainable from the public sources cited in the text and are available upon request.

Tax Avoidance and Tunneling: Empirical Analysis from an Agency Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Hung Chan ◽  
Phyllis Lai Lan Mo ◽  
Tanya Tang
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Transition Economy ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Agency Conflicts ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Minority Shareholders ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Highly Correlated

ABSTRACT Taking advantage of the agency conflicts between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders and the weak corporate governance in a transition economy, we investigate the relationship between tax avoidance (proxied by effective tax rates) and tunneling (proxied by related-party lending) from a principal-principal agency perspective. We find that corporate tax avoidance is positively associated with tunneling after controlling for firm characteristics, corporate governance, and institutional factors that affect tunneling. This relationship is more pronounced for firms with cash shortages and in periods with relatively weak investor protection. In addition, the value-enhancing implications of tax avoidance are reduced for firms in which tax avoidance is highly correlated with tunneling. By demonstrating the existence of tunneling-related tax avoidance and its economic consequences, this study sheds light on the emerging agency perspective on tax avoidance. JEL Classifications: G18; H20; M41.

The Cost of Independence: Evidence from Companies' Decisions to Dismiss Audit Firms as Tax-Service Providers

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Kirsten A. Cook ◽  
Kevin Kim ◽  
Thomas C. Omer
Keyword(s):  
Service Provision ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Planning ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Sarbanes Oxley ◽  
Audit Firms ◽  
The Cost

SYNOPSIS This study examines whether companies' decisions to dismiss or substantially reduce reliance on their audit firms as tax-service providers in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act affect tax avoidance. We hypothesize that decoupling audit and tax-service provision and subsequently obtaining tax services from a new provider can result in decreased tax avoidance because the new provider lacks familiarity with a client's existing tax planning or does not have the expertise to generate new tax-avoidance opportunities. Consistent with our hypothesis, our results reveal that sample companies' book (cash) effective tax rates increased by economically significant 1.36 (1.63) percentage points in the year after terminating or substantially decreasing purchases of tax services from their audit firms, and discretionary permanent book-tax differences declined significantly. We find that decreases in tax avoidance were larger for companies whose outgoing tax-service providers were tax-specific industry experts.

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.

A Model of Multinational Income Shifting and an Application to Tax Planning with E-Commerce

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Klassen ◽  
Stacie K. Laplante ◽  
Carla Carnaghan
Keyword(s):  
Tax Planning ◽  
Investment Model ◽  
Income Shifting ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Foreign Earnings ◽  
Joint Consideration ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT: This manuscript develops an investment model that incorporates the joint consideration of income shifting by multinational parents to or from a foreign subsidiary and the decision to repatriate or reinvest foreign earnings. The model demonstrates that, while there is always an incentive to shift income into the U.S. from high-foreign-tax-rate subsidiaries, income shifting out of the U.S. to low-tax-rate countries occurs only under certain conditions. The model explicitly shows how the firms' required rate of return for foreign investments affects both repatriation and income shifting decisions. We show how the model can be used to refine extant research. We then apply it to a novel setting—using e-commerce for tax planning. We find firms in manufacturing industries with high levels of e-commerce have economically significant lower cash effective tax rates. This effect is magnified for firms that are less likely to have taxable repatriations. JEL Classifications: G38, H25, H32, M41.

Top Management Team Intrapersonal Functional Diversity and Tax Avoidance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Plecnik ◽  
Shan Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Top Management Team ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Prior Literature

Top management team (TMT) members have been shown to influence tax avoidance; however, prior literature has not identified whether the intrapersonal diversity of TMT functional backgrounds leads to higher levels of tax avoidance. To study this relationship, we utilize TMT intrapersonal functional diversity, which captures the average heterogeneity of the TMT members' work experience. The skills associated with intrapersonal functional diversity may allow managers to better understand and communicate with various parties related to firm tax policies, thereby facilitating tax avoidance. Overall, we find that TMTs with higher levels of intrapersonal functional diversity achieve lower cash effective tax rates and that these TMTs do not rely on tax strategies that pose high risk.

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.

Challenges of Monitoring Tax Compliance by Multinational Firms: Evidence from Chile

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 500-505
Author(s):  
Sebastián Bustos ◽  
Dina Pomeranz ◽  
José Vila-Belda ◽  
Gabriel Zucman
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Firms ◽  
Transfer Pricing ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Compliance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Profit Shifting ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Arm’S Length Principle ◽  
Debt Shifting

This paper reviews common challenges of taxing multinational firms, using Chile as a case study. We briefly describe key international tax avoidance methods: profit shifting to low-tax jurisdictions through transfer pricing and debt shifting. We discuss the prevalent policy to tax multinationals--the arm's length principle--and alternative proposals using apportionment formulas. Novel data from Chile show that multinationals make up a large share of GDP but report lower profit and effective tax rates than local firms. In 2011, Chile implemented a reform following OECD guidelines to enforce the arm's length principle. We discuss potential effects on tax collection and welfare.

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