参与PPP能否减轻企业税负——基于准自然实验的证据

政府与社会资本合作（PPP）模式在解决公共服务供给不足问题的同时,也给社会资本方的经营带来影响。企业参与PPP与政府建立良好合作关系是否有助于其税负的减轻？基于PPP概念股上市公司数据,本文采用准自然实验框架实证研究了企业参与PPP对其税负的影响。研究结果表明：企业参与PPP提高了其避税程度,降低了税负水平。分行业看,建筑业效应在统计上最为显著,而电力、热力等市政建设类项目企业参与PPP后税负不降反升。分区域看,东部和中部地区企业参与PPP对其税负有显著的降低,而西部地区并不显著。政策启示是在严格执行显性税收优惠的同时,规范PPP项目中政府与企业之间的利益关系。

Can Participating in PPP Reduce Firm's Tax Liability in China-A Quasi-natural Experiment Analysis

PPP(Public-Private Partnership) can reduce the government's fiscal expenditure pressure and improve the efficiency of public service provision, which is widely used in China. In PPP projects, Private companies as the social capital establishes a special interest relationship with the government, which facilitates the explicit or implicit tax benefits, thus reducing their tax liability. Based on the data of the financial report disclosed by the listed company, the paper uses PSM-DID to study the quasi-natural experiment in the influence of the PPP project on its tax liability. Results show that companies involved in the PPP project improve the degree of tax avoidance, reduce the tax liability. The effect is statistically significant in construction industry, however tax increase in municipal construction industry such as electricity, heat companies. From the regional perspective, the companies in the eastern and central regions have significantly reduced their tax rates on the PPP projects, while the western regions are not statistically significant. The main policy implications are while governments strictly enforce explicit tax breaks, they should specify implicit interest between between government and companies who involved in PPP projects to prevent the active or passive tax benefits given to the companies.