scholarly journals The Decreasing Trend in U.S. Cash Effective Tax Rates: The Role of Growth in Pre-tax Income

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Edwards ◽  
Adrian David Kubata ◽  
Terry Shevlin
Keyword(s):  
Convex Function ◽  
Avoidance Behavior ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Downward Trend ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Stable Linear

We develop a linear corporate tax function where taxes paid are regressed on pre-tax income and an intercept. We show that if the intercept is positive, cash ETRs are a convex function of pre-tax income. We present large sample evidence consistent with this ETR-convexity. Thus, although firms may have stable linear tax functions (i.e., constant parameters in the linear tax model) representing stable tax avoidance behavior, ETRs can change over time because of growth in pre-tax income. Consequently, simply examining changes (or differences) in cash ETRs is nondiagnostic about whether tax avoidance has changed over time (or differs across firms). We illustrate our argument by showing that all of the observed downward trend in cash ETRs documented by Dyreng et al. (2017) can be explained by growth in pre-tax income. The wholesale concern about increased tax avoidance over time might be overstated.

Do IRS Audits Deter Corporate Tax Avoidance?

2012 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 1603-1639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Hoopes ◽  
Devan Mescall ◽  
Jeffrey A. Pittman
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Coefficient Estimates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Enforcement ◽  
Public Firms ◽  
Large Samples ◽  
Percentage Points

ABSTRACT We extend research on the determinants of corporate tax avoidance to include the role of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) monitoring. Our evidence from large samples implies that U.S. public firms undertake less aggressive tax positions when tax enforcement is stricter. Reflecting its first-order economic impact on firms, our coefficient estimates imply that raising the probability of an IRS audit from 19 percent (the 25th percentile in our data) to 37 percent (the 75th percentile) increases their cash effective tax rates, on average, by nearly two percentage points, which amounts to a 7 percent increase in cash effective tax rates. These results are robust to controlling for firm size and time, which determine our primary proxy for IRS enforcement, in different ways; specifying several alternative dependent and test variables; and confronting potential endogeneity with instrumental variables and panel data estimations, among other techniques. JEL Classifications: M40; G34; G32; H25.

The Effects of Executives on Corporate Tax Avoidance

2010 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 1163-1189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D. Dyreng ◽  
Michelle Hanlon ◽  
Edward L. Maydew
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Top Executives ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACT: This study investigates whether individual top executives have incremental effects on their firms’ tax avoidance that cannot be explained by characteristics of the firm. To identify executive effects on firms’ effective tax rates, we construct a data set that tracks the movement of 908 executives across firms over time. Results indicate that individual executives play a significant role in determining the level of tax avoidance that firms undertake. The economic magnitude of the executive effects on tax avoidance is large. Moving between the top and bottom quartiles of executives results in approximately an 11 percent swing in GAAP effective tax rates; thus, executive effects appear to be an important determinant in firms’ tax avoidance.

The Effect of High-Quality Information Technology on Corporate Tax Avoidance and Tax Risk

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russ Hamilton ◽  
James Stekelberg
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Quality Information ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
It Systems ◽  
High Quality Information

ABSTRACT We examine the effect of high-quality information technology (IT) on corporate tax outcomes. Using a measure of IT quality constructed from rankings in InformationWeek magazine, we find that firms with high-quality IT are able to achieve both lower and less volatile cash effective tax rates than are other firms. These results suggest that firms with high-quality IT are able to avoid more taxes while simultaneously incurring less tax risk compared to firms with lesser IT systems. We also perform mediation analyses to investigate the channels through which high-quality IT enables effective tax planning. Results of these tests suggest that the most important driver of our findings is timely, reliable information facilitated by high-quality IT. Our study contributes to both the IT and tax literatures by identifying and quantifying the returns to investments in IT in terms of more favorable corporate tax outcomes.

The Political Economy of Taxation: Some Evidence for Canada

1988 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Blais ◽  
François Vaillancourt
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Canadian Manufacturing ◽  
The Relationship

The article examines the determinants of variations in the effective average tax rate among Canadian manufacturing industry. It replicates a previous study (Salomon and Siegfried, 1977) on the U.S. corporate tax that found relationships between the economic structure and tax avoidance rates. Some methodological problems in the study are identified, which raise doubts about their conclusions. It is shown that effective tax rates fluctuate substantially over time and that the results may be sensitive to the year selected for analysis. As a consequence, tax-avoidance rates are regressed against a number of independent variables in two different years: 1974 and 1979. The overall weakness of the relationship is striking. With our best measure of the tax-avoidance rate, 2 out of 12 variables are significant in 1974 and one in 1979. These findings suggests that the corporate income tax may not be as important an instrument of industrial policy as it is sometimes claimed to be.

Long-Run Corporate Tax Avoidance

2008 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D. Dyreng ◽  
Michelle Hanlon ◽  
Edward L. Maydew
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Initial Examination ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Sample Mean ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Long Run

We develop and describe a new measure of long-run corporate tax avoidance that is based on the ability to pay a low amount of cash taxes per dollar of pre-tax earnings over long time periods. We label this measure the “long-run cash effective tax rate.” We use the long-run cash effective tax rate to examine (1) the extent to which some firms are able to avoid taxes over periods as long as ten years, and (2) how predictive one-year tax rates are for long-run tax avoidance. In our sample of 2,077 firms, we find there is considerable cross-sectional variation in tax avoidance. For example, approximately one-fourth of our sample firms are able to maintain long-run cash effective tax rates below 20 percent, compared to a sample mean tax rate of approximately 30 percent. We also find that annual cash effective tax rates are not very good predictors of long-run cash effective tax rates and, thus, are not accurate proxies for long-run tax avoidance. While there is some evidence of persistence in annual cash effective tax rates, the persistence is asymmetric. Low annual cash effective tax rates are more persistent than are high annual cash effective tax rates. An initial examination of characteristics of firms successful at keeping their cash effective tax rates low over long periods shows that they are well spread across industries but with some clustering.

Effective Tax Rate Time Trends and its Determinants: Insight From The Corporate Taxpayer Utilising Reinvestment Allowance In Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-46
Author(s):  
Fairus Halizam A. Hamzah ◽  
Nadiah Abd Hamid ◽  
Siti Noorhayati Mohamed Zawawi
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Tax Incentive ◽  
Utilisation Rate ◽  
Tax Deduction

This study aims to provide evidence on the trend in corporate tax revenue from the application of time-trend analysis of effective tax rate (ETR) amongst corporate taxpayers in Malaysia who claimed reinvestment allowance (RA) over a decade between 2007 and 2016. This study chose these observation periods because the Malaysian corporate STR has been found to have gradually reduced from 27 per cent to 24 per cent between 2007 to 2016, whereby these changes somehow impacted the tax revenue. Taxpayers who used RA for tax planning pay low taxes over time, determined through tax return data. Then, the study intended to examine the relationships between certain tax attributes, namely, company's profitability (ROA), the reinvestment allowance utilisation rate (RAUTI), type of corporate taxpayers (TPP), the book-tax gap (BTG) and how they associate to the trend in ETR. Reinvestment Allowance (RA) is renowned for being a corporate tax incentive in Malaysia to encourage investments in qualified projects through a tax deduction. An incentivised firm that pays low tax may not be engaging in fraudulent management, as generally assumed. However, it could have been due to tax avoidance strategies that can be observed through reduced or lowered effective tax rate (ETR) across ten years. Keywords: Effective Tax Rates, Tax Avoidance, Reinvestment Allowance, Tax Incentive, Taxation.

scholarly journals Corporate Tax Avoidance of Malaysian Public Listed Companies: A Multi-Measure Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
Nirmala Devi Mohanadas ◽  
Suganthi Ramasamy ◽  
Abdullah Sallehhuddin Abdullah Salim
Keyword(s):  
Developing Economies ◽  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Correlation Analyses ◽  
Measure Analysis ◽  
Distribution Frequency

Objective - Even with corporate tax avoidance being extensively studied, it is still lacking a single universal measurement. There is also a dearth of studies focusing on developing economies such as Malaysia. This study, therefore, analyses the correlations between effective tax rates (ETRs) and book-tax differences (BTDs), which are the most commonly used measures of corporate tax avoidance on Malaysian listed companies for ten years. Methodology/Technique - This study performs distribution, frequency, and correlation analyses on the ETRs and BTDs of the Top 300 companies listed in the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia based on market capitalization. The data used spans a ten-year period from 2010 to 2019. Findings - The results of the distribution, frequency, and correlation analyses show that both these measures are closely related gauges of corporate tax avoidance. Novelty - The results of this study provide further statistical proof that ETR and BTD measures of corporate tax avoidance are closely related. Its utilization of data from listed companies in Malaysia expands the current body of literature by addressing corporate tax avoidance practice in a developing economy. By concentrating on both ETR and BTD measures, this study's analysis is consistent with the broad continuum of corporate tax avoidance spectrum and significantly reduces the risk of warping its determination of tax avoidance level. Type of Paper - Empirical. Keywords: Cash ETR; corporate tax avoidance; GAAP ETR; permanent BDT; total BTD. JEL Classification: G30, H25, H26, M40. URI: http://gatrenterprise.com/GATRJournals/AFR/vol6.1_1.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.35609/afr.2021.6.1(1) Pages 44 – 53

scholarly journals The Interplay Between Tax Havens, Geographic Disclosures and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameh Kobbi-Fakhfakh
Keyword(s):  
Tax Avoidance ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Effective Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Havens ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Tax Haven

Abstract This study examines the interplay between tax haven use, geographic disclosures and corporate tax avoidance. Based on a panel of 497 non-financial EU listed firms during the period 2006–2012, we provide evidence that corporate groups with affiliates in tax havens tend to have lower effective tax rates and lower geographic disclosures fineness scores. We, also, find a positive association between geographic disclosures fineness scores and the firms’ effective tax rates. We, further, find that the negative association between tax haven use and the effective tax rate is more pronounced for firms disclosing geographic information at a more aggregated level, showing a moderating effect of geographic disclosures fineness on such association. Our findings are based upon hand-collected data on corporate geographical dispersion, and corroborated by several additional and robustness tests. The research results should be of concern to policymakers and others interested in multinational companies’ segment reporting practices and tax planning activities.

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.

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