Did PCAOB rules on ethics,independence, and tax services influence financial reporting for income taxes? |
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| Institution: | 1. Western Michigan University, United States;2. George Mason University, United States;3. Florida Atlantic University, United States;1. School of Business, University of Connecticut, 2100 Hillside Rd., Unit 1041A, Storrs, CT 06269, United States;2. College of Business, Colorado State University, 501 W. Laurel St., Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States;1. Department of Accounting, Box 8113, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8113, United States;2. Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University, Cannaregio 873, 30121 Venice, Italy;1. Oregon State University, United States;2. Purdue University, United States |
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| Abstract: | The PCAOB Rules on Ethics, Independence, and Tax Services prohibited accounting firms from providing aggressive tax-position transactions to their audit clients. We exploit this setting to examine whether the scrutiny of the PCAOB affects companies’ financial reporting for income tax accounts. We find robust evidence that the overall quality of the income tax accrual increased after companies significantly reduced auditor-provided tax service (APTS) fees in response to the regulation. We show that this improvement is a function of companies’ pre-regulation tax aggressiveness. In addition, we find evidence that after the fee reductions, tax-aggressive companies increased financial statement reserves for uncertain income tax positions without changing tax-aggressive decisions. Overall, our findings are consistent with an improvement in the financial reporting for income taxes under regulatory scrutiny which is more pronounced for companies that were tax aggressive in the pre-regulation period. |
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| Keywords: | PCAOB Auditor-provided tax services Tax accrual quality Accounting for income taxes Tax avoidance Uncertain tax benefits |
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