How Aggressive Tax Planning Facilitates the Diversion of Corporate Resources: Evidence from Path Analysis

In measuring tunneling with intercorporate loans disclosed by Chinese listed companies, we analyze the underlying channels through which aggressive tax planning facilitates the diversion of corporate resources by firm insiders. Using path analysis, we document that the path from tax aggressiveness to related loans is mediated by both the additional cash flows from tax savings and the increased financial opacity from tax planning, and that additional cash flows plays a much more important role than opacity in helping controlling shareholders to divert corporate resources under the guise of tax aggressiveness. Beyond the two mediated paths, we also detect a residual, direct path from tax aggressiveness to related loans. After an exogenous shock from the government crackdown on diversionary related loans, we find the direct path is fully mediated by the two indirect paths, suggesting that tunneling via related loans only occurs at firms where insiders can mask tunneling under the cover of opacity or can justify related loans on grounds of abnormal cash flows from tax savings. Our evidence supports the notion that greater outside scrutiny increases the hurdle for, but does not entirely eradicate, diversion facilitated by tax aggressiveness. Collectively, our research lends some support to recent theory on the importance of taxes to corporate governance by demonstrating how the agency costs of tax planning allow certain shareholders to benefit from firm activities at the expense of others.     

Tax Avoidance and the Implications of Weak Internal Controls

I examine whether corporate tax avoidance is associated with internal control weaknesses (ICWs) disclosed under the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX). ICWs disclosed under SOX are frequently related to a firm's tax function. When pervasive ICWs exist, the likelihood increases that these frequent tax‐related ICWs spill over from financial reporting issues to tax avoidance objectives. Thus, my research helps corporate stakeholders understand the implications of internal controls beyond simply financial reporting objectives. Results indicate that, on average, firms with a tax‐related ICW have a 4 percent higher three‐year cash effective tax rate relative to firms without any such weaknesses. Further estimates reveal that this negative relation stems from pervasive, company‐level tax ICWs. Analysis of remediation suggests a causal link. I find that after remediating tax‐related ICWs, firms report higher levels of tax avoidance in the future. Broadly, these findings support that internal control quality represents a proxy for internal governance, and thus the strength of alignment between managers and shareholders. Furthermore, tax‐related internal controls represent an important underlying determinant of tax avoidance with significant cash flow effects, and implications beyond financial reporting.     

The Three Hurdles of Tax Planning: How Business Context,Aims of Tax Planning,and Tax Manager Power Affect Tax Expense

The question of why some companies pay fewer taxes than others is a widely investigated topic of interest. One of the well‐known explanations is a phenomenon called tax avoidance. We develop a grounded theory model of influences on corporate tax planning through a series of 19 in‐depth German tax expert interviews. Our research identifies three independent hurdles in the tax planning process, which can help to explain different levels of tax expense across companies. Those three hurdles sequentially address which tax planning methods are available (defined by business characteristics), desirable (given via aims of tax planning), and implementable (determined by tax manager power). A large part of previous research has estimated the influence of firm characteristics, which we incorporate in the broader term business characteristics, on tax expense, while the other influences that we identify have largely been left “out of the equation.” In the light of the current public debates on tax avoidance, we reveal two important findings: First, we find that companies vary widely in the aggressiveness of their aims of tax planning, which contrasts sharply with the picture often drawn by undifferentiated media reports. Second, tax managers can assume very different levels of power in their organization. The implementation of desirable tax planning methods varies depending on this level of tax manager power. In conclusion, our three‐hurdle grounded theory provides generalizable insights into important influences on corporate tax planning which help to explain the observed variation in tax expenses across firms.     

财政压力对企业慈善捐赠行为影响的实证研究

慈善捐赠是企业履行社会责任的一种重要形式。以中国2011—2020年上市公司为样本,考察财政压力对企业慈善捐赠的影响,并探讨企业税负在财政压力与企业慈善捐赠二者之间的作用。研究发现,地方财政压力越大,越能促进该地区的企业捐赠,且企业税负在财政压力与企业捐赠之间存在反向调节作用。政府可以通过制定合理的财政收支规划,规范税收标准,为企业提供良好的税收环境,正确引导企业捐赠行为。     

The Economic Effects of Special Purpose Entities on Corporate Tax Avoidance

This study provides the first large-sample evidence on the economic tax effects of special purpose entities (SPEs). These increasingly common organizational structures facilitate corporate tax savings by enabling sponsor firms to increase tax-advantaged activities and/or enhance their tax efficiency (i.e., relative tax savings of a given activity). Using path analysis, we find that SPEs facilitate greater tax avoidance such that an economically large amount of cash tax savings from research and development (R&D), depreciable assets, net operating loss carryforwards, intangible assets, foreign operations, and tax havens occur in conjunction with SPE use. We estimate that SPEs help generate over $330 billion of incremental cash tax savings, or roughly 6 percent of total U.S. federal corporate income tax collections during the sample period. Interaction analyses reveal that SPEs enhance the tax efficiency of intangibles and R&D by 61.5 percent to 87.5 percent. Overall, these findings provide economic insight into complex organizational structures supporting corporate tax avoidance.     

Enterprise Risk Management Program Quality: Determinants,Value Relevance,and the Financial Crisis

This paper investigates factors associated with high‐quality Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) programs in financial services firms, and whether ERM quality enhances performance and signals credibility to the financial markets. ERM, developed with the assistance of the accounting profession, provides a framework and plan to integrate management of all sources of risk. Challenged by measurement difficulties common to research on management control systems, prior ERM studies present mixed findings. Using ERM quality ratings of financial companies by Standard & Poor's, we find that higher ERM quality is associated with greater complexity, less resource constraint, and better corporate governance. Controlling for such characteristics, we find that higher ERM quality is associated with improved accounting performance. Results show a market reaction to signals of enhanced management control from initial ERM quality ratings and rating revisions, and a stronger response to earnings surprises for firms with higher ERM quality. Focusing on the recent global financial crisis, our analysis suggests that there is no relation between ERM quality and market performance prior to and during the market collapse. However, returns of higher ERM quality companies are higher during the market rebound. Overall, results reveal that firm performance and value are enhanced by high‐quality controls that integrate risk management efforts across the firm, enabling better oversight of managers' risk‐taking behavior and aligning that behavior with the strategic direction of the company.     

Corporate In‐house Tax Departments*

In‐house human capital tax investment is a significant input to a firm's tax decisions. Yet, due to the lack of data on corporate in‐house tax departments, there is little empirical evidence on how tax departments are associated with tax planning and compliance outcomes. We expect the size of tax departments to be positively associated with the effectiveness of tax planning and compliance. Using hand‐collected data on the number of corporate tax employees in S&P 1500 firms over the 2009–2014 period, we find that firms with larger tax departments are associated with lower and less volatile cash effective tax rates. Furthermore, using tax employees' specialization, we identify tax departments' relative focus on planning or compliance and document a trade‐off between tax avoidance and tax risk. Specifically, tax departments with more of a tax planning focus have incrementally greater tax avoidance but higher tax risk, whereas tax departments with more of a tax compliance focus have incrementally lower tax risk but higher tax rates. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by looking inside the “black box” of corporate tax departments and shedding light on the importance of human capital tax investment for tax outcomes.     

Trade‐offs between Tax and Financial Reporting Benefits: Evidence from Purchase Price Allocations in Taxable Acquisitions

Under U.S. GAAP, firms recognize assets acquired in business combinations at fair value. Similarly, in taxable asset acquisitions firms adjust the tax basis of assets to fair value. Managers can increase the present value of future tax savings by allocating a greater portion of the purchase price to shorter‐lived assets than to goodwill or indefinite‐lived intangibles. However, this tax planning strategy imposes a financial reporting cost because it reduces book income following the acquisition; all else equal, allocations to shorter‐lived depreciable assets increase book depreciation expense, whereas allocations to goodwill and indefinite‐lived intangibles do not increase book amortization expense. We exploit the features of taxable asset acquisitions to investigate trade‐offs between tax and financial reporting incentives. We predict and find greater allocations to depreciable versus intangible assets when managers have strong tax incentives and weak financial reporting incentives. However, we also find that strong financial reporting incentives moderate the effects of strong tax incentives. These findings contribute new evidence to the literature on the importance of nontax costs in tax planning decisions     

Transparency,Information Shocks,and Tax Avoidance

This study helps provide clarity to the prior mixed findings on the association between financial reporting transparency and tax avoidance by studying the effect that transparency has on tax avoidance in a cross‐country sample through aggregate‐ and firm‐level tests. Results using firm‐ and country‐level (aggregate) measures of transparency and tax avoidance show that countries and firms with greater levels of transparency exhibit lower levels of tax avoidance and that the effect of country‐level transparency is incremental to firm‐level transparency. Furthermore, results of difference‐in‐difference tests using the adoption of IFRS and the initial enforcement of insider trading laws around the world as exogenous shocks that increase transparency find that transparency has a statistically and economically significant effect on tax avoidance and address empirical concerns regarding endogeneity and reverse causality not fully addressed in the prior research. The results of these tests as well as tests that address potential correlated but omitted variables suggest that financial transparency is an important tool which regulators can use in battling tax avoidance.     

Financial Accounting Effects of Tax Aggressiveness: Contracting and Measurement

This study examines a setting in which a tax‐reporting decision is delegated to a firm's tax manager. Using financial accounting measures of tax expense to evaluate the tax manager allows the firm to efficiently attain the level of tax avoidance it prefers, despite the fact that the consequences of the tax‐reporting decision will occur in the future. The study also examines how well two accounting measures of tax aggressiveness — cash taxes paid and the unrecognized tax benefit — distinguish between conservative and aggressive firms.     

Innovation and Corporate Tax Planning: The Distinct Effects of Patents and R&D*

Using a large US sample, we find a significant and positive relation between patents and corporate tax planning, and the effect is incremental to the effect of R&D on tax planning. We employ a quasi‐natural experiment based on staggered industry‐level innovation shocks to identify the positive causal effect of patents on corporate tax planning. We also find that patents are not associated with tax planning for domestic firms, but their association with tax planning is concentrated in multinational firms, which have the ability to shift domestic income to low‐tax countries. Moreover, we find that the identified effect mainly exists in the post–check‐the‐box (CTB) rule period when shifting income among affiliates becomes more flexible and convenient. Finally, we use two income‐shifting models and find that patents, rather than R&D, facilitate tax planning through an income‐shifting channel. Overall, our results suggest that R&D and patents facilitate firms' tax planning in distinct ways: R&D facilitates tax planning as intended through tax credits and deductions, whereas patents are used by taxpayers to avoid taxes aggressively through income shifting.     

数字化转型对企业绩效的影响研究——来自A股制造业上市公司的经验证据

数字化转型能够为企业提升创新水平同时节约成本费用,从而对企业绩效产生积极的作用,推动企业高质量发展。选取2013—2020年我国沪深A股制造业上市企业为研究样本,从理论与实证角度探讨了数字化转型与企业绩效之间的关系及其作用机制。研究发现,制造业企业数字化转型与企业绩效存在着显著的正相关关系,企业数字化转型能够提高企业的反应速度和灵敏度,从而对企业绩效产生正向的促进作用。通过中介效应检验得出,制造业企业数字化转型能够通过提升企业的创新水平和降低成本费用进而促进企业绩效的提升,创新水平和成本节约发挥了中介作用。研究结论对于中国制造业企业实现高质量发展,打造先进制造业高地具有重要意义。     

Is Tax Avoidance Associated with Economically Significant Rent Extraction among U.S. Firms?

Two influential papers in the tax‐avoidance literature (Desai and Dharmapala 2006 ; Desai, Dyck, and Zingales 2007 ) argue that aggressive forms of tax avoidance employ technologies that complement managerial rent extraction, and provide supporting evidence from firms in Russia. Several papers rely on this theory to motivate and interpret tests in a U.S. setting, but these tests are open to multiple interpretations. This paper investigates the extent to which shareholders of U.S. companies are affected by any such rent extraction. The evidence is inconsistent with the tax‐avoidance technologies employed by U.S. firms allowing managers to extract sufficient rents to negatively affect future performance. Additional tests on poorly governed U.S. firms find no evidence that tax‐avoidance activities relate positively to either overinvestment or higher executive compensation, and no evidence that either complexity or the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act moderates the relation between future performance and tax avoidance. The evidence suggests that caution is warranted in interpreting evidence according to this theory in a U.S. setting.     

Financial performance and corporate governance in microfinance: Evidence from Asia

Good corporate governance is considered a building block of success for microfinance institutions (MFIs) as it is presumed to help them in achieving their social and financial goals. This paper analyzes the corporate governance and financial performance relationship for MFIs in Asia. We make use of a panel dataset involving 173 MFIs in 18 Asian countries for the period 2007–2011. We construct a corporate governance index based on seven measures pertaining to board size and composition, CEO characteristics, and ownership type. We then estimate the two-way relationship between this index and each of five different financial performance indicators. To address the likely simultaneity between corporate governance and financial performance, we adopt a two-stage least squares estimation approach with instrumental variables. Our results confirm the endogenous nature of corporate governance and financial performance. We conclude that profitability and sustainability of MFIs improve with good governance practices and conversely that more profitable and sustainable MFIs have better governance systems.     

The Asian crisis,private sector saving,and policy implications

The Asian financial crisis has several critical implications for the saving behavior in the crisis-hit economies as well as in other Asian economies, which are summarized as follows: increase in economic uncertainty; increase in poverty; decrease in public confidence in financial institutions; financial liberalization; and reduction in corporate leverage ratio. Putting these together, the postcrisis saving rates in the crisis economies are likely to decrease without government interventions. Although the uncertainity factor may contribute to an increase in short-term saving, an abated level in household income and corporate output and slow GDP growth will lead to a contraction in saving rates. Increased poverty, diminished public confidence in banking institutions, and the increased variability of business sales will further contribute to a reduction in saving rates of the household and corporate sectors. Keeping this in mind, the postcrisis saving policy should consider stronger macroeconomic stabilization policies to reduce the underlying economic uncertainty to encourage long-term savings/investments; improving the public confidence in financial institutions through financial restructuring and a proper deposit insurance scheme in place; channeling informal sector saving into the formal financial institutions; and promoting propoor saving policies.     

所有权性质、企业社会责任与会计信息可靠性

文章以我国A股中2009-2013年披露社会责任报告的上市公司为样本,实证检验了企业社会责任与会计信息可靠性的关系,以及不同所有权性质对二者关系的影响。研究发现,我国企业履行社会责任行为符合道德理论和战略管理理论,即企业社会责任表现越好,其所报告的会计信息可靠性越强。此外,由于国有上市公司既肩负政治任务,同时还面临政府管制和公众关注,因此,民营上市公司的企业社会责任与会计信息可靠性的正相关关系更为显著。文章的研究结论对财务报告使用者判断会计信息可靠性具有启示作用。     

Resource mobilization in developing countries: Financial institutions and policies

Discussion in this paper of the areas and scope for domestic policy action aimed at improving the process of domestic resource mobilization, allocation and use is developed in several stages. First, the authors assess the progress made by LDCs in raising their rates of saving and investment over the past 25 years. Next, government policies — government tax expenditure and pricing policies, in particular — and their effect on public savings are discussed. This is followed by treatment of the issues of private saving performance and allocation, i.e. how to stimulate and make better use of household savings. Institutional and policy measures are suggested as means of promoting a more active role of the banking system. Brief reference is made to the role of development banks in project preparation and in tapping the capital market.     

多元资本共生视角下企业社会责任与财务绩效研究

文章以多元资本共生的视角研究企业,考察企业社会责任和利益相关者的边界与内涵,探讨社会责任与财务绩效的内在作用机理。研究认为,企业是多元资本的共生体,在市场机制的供需关系作用下进行资源优化配置,多元资本的供给者与企业形成利益相关者关系,社会责任是多元资本供给者向企业寻求资本回报的表现。文章利用我国上市公司数据构建结构方程模型,实证发现企业多元资本之间存在共生关系;多元资本共同作用于企业财务绩效,不同的多元资本对财务绩效的作用不同。     

我国高储蓄率的成因及其对策探析

本文从储蓄结构深化研究我国高储蓄率的成因,提出降低我国储蓄率的思路主要是降低企业储蓄率和政府储蓄率。具体对策是尽快出台调整企业储蓄率政策;进一步完善社会保障体系;改革金融市场、健全金融机构及完善金融体制,还有合理调节收入分配差距。     

好的品牌能带来更多的回报吗?——基于中国公司的经验研究

品牌是公司最为重要的无形资产,好的品牌能够为公司创造更多的价值。然而,在市场体系尚未健全、商业信用有待重整的中国,品牌能否为公司带来更多的回报是一个有待回答的实证话题。文章根据世界品牌实验室公布的中国500最具价值品牌排行榜,实证分析了品牌与公司业绩之间的关系。实证研究表明,在中国这样的新兴市场国家,高品牌能够为公司带来超额的财务回报和市场回报。