IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/abacus/v58y2022i1p174-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Terrorism and Corporate Tax Avoidance

Author

Listed:
  • Haoran Xu
  • William J. Moser

Abstract

We examine the impact of terrorism risk on corporate tax avoidance. We find that firms headquartered in areas with a higher terrorism risk engage in more corporate tax avoidance. Further, we show that terrorism risk has a greater impact on corporate tax avoidance when terrorist attacks are severe in terms of the targets hit, damage, and the numbers of victims. Tests on channels show that higher terrorism risk is associated with firms suffering greater financial constraints. We provide evidence that increased terrorism risk is also associated with the reallocation of US Internal Revenue Service budgeted expenditures away from tax return audit enforcement and towards increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigative Division combating terrorism. We conclude that terrorism risk increases and facilitates the corporate demand for tax savings.

Suggested Citation

  • Haoran Xu & William J. Moser, 2022. "Terrorism and Corporate Tax Avoidance," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 58(1), pages 174-208, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:58:y:2022:i:1:p:174-208
    DOI: 10.1111/abac.12235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/abac.12235
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/abac.12235?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Shuping & Chen, Xia & Cheng, Qiang & Shevlin, Terry, 2010. "Are family firms more tax aggressive than non-family firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 41-61, January.
    2. Eckstein, Zvi & Tsiddon, Daniel, 2004. "Macroeconomic consequences of terror: theory and the case of Israel," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 971-1002, July.
    3. Luca Salvadori, 2015. "Does tax enforcement counteract the negative effects of terrorism? A case study of the Basque country," ERSA conference papers ersa15p1465, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Chyz, James A., 2013. "Personally tax aggressive executives and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 311-328.
    5. Nitsch, Volker & Schumacher, Dieter, 2004. "Terrorism and international trade: an empirical investigation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 423-433, June.
    6. Rony Pshisva & Gustavo A. Suárez F., 2006. "Captive Markets: the Impact of Kidnappings on Corporate Investment in Colombia," Coyuntura Económica, Fedesarrollo, June.
    7. Antonio Falato & Nellie Liang, 2016. "Do Creditor Rights Increase Employment Risk? Evidence from Loan Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2545-2590, December.
    8. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Mirza, Daniel & Verdier, Thierry, 2008. "International trade, security and transnational terrorism: Theory and a survey of empirics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 179-194, June.
    10. Allingham, Michael G. & Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 323-338, November.
    11. Michael Faulkender & Rong Wang, 2006. "Corporate Financial Policy and the Value of Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1957-1990, August.
    12. Blomberg, S. Brock & Hess, Gregory D. & Orphanides, Athanasios, 2004. "The macroeconomic consequences of terrorism," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1007-1032, July.
    13. Sonja Olhoft Rego & Ryan Wilson, 2012. "Equity Risk Incentives and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 775-810, June.
    14. Chesney, Marc & Reshetar, Ganna & Karaman, Mustafa, 2011. "The impact of terrorism on financial markets: An empirical study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 253-267, February.
    15. Newberry, KJ, 1998. "Foreign tax credit limitations and capital structure decisions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 157-166.
    16. James Alm, 2012. "Measuring, explaining, and controlling tax evasion: lessons from theory, experiments, and field studies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(1), pages 54-77, February.
    17. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    18. Gupta, Sanjay & Newberry, Kaye, 1997. "Determinants of the variability in corporate effective tax rates: Evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-34.
    19. Scott D. Dyreng & Jeffrey L. Hoopes & Jaron H. Wilde, 2016. "Public Pressure and Corporate Tax Behavior," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 147-186, March.
    20. Slemrod, Joel & Blumenthal, Marsha & Christian, Charles, 2001. "Taxpayer response to an increased probability of audit: evidence from a controlled experiment in Minnesota," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 455-483, March.
    21. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2015. "Taxes and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Linguistic Cues," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 777-819, September.
    22. Kuhnen, Camelia M. & Knutson, Brian, 2011. "The Influence of Affect on Beliefs, Preferences, and Financial Decisions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 605-626, June.
    23. Michael R Czinkota & Gary Knight & Peter W Liesch & John Steen, 2010. "Terrorism and international business: A research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(5), pages 826-843, June.
    24. Grantley Taylor & Grant Richardson & Ross Taplin & Steven Cahan, 2015. "Determinants of tax haven utilization: evidence from Australian firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(2), pages 545-574, June.
    25. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    26. Margarita Tsoutsoura, 2015. "The Effect of Succession Taxes on Family Firm Investment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 649-688, April.
    27. Jeff P. Boone & Inder K. Khurana & K. K. Raman, 2013. "Religiosity and Tax Avoidance," Working Papers 0198acc, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    28. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Jagolinzer, Alan D. & Larcker, David F., 2015. "Corporate Governance, Incentives, and Tax Avoidance," Research Papers 2134, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    29. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    30. Wang, Albert Y. & Young, Michael, 2020. "Terrorist attacks and investor risk preference: Evidence from mutual fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 491-514.
    31. Burch, Timothy R. & Emery, Douglas R. & Fuerst, Michael E., 2016. "Who Moves Markets in a Sudden Marketwide Crisis? Evidence from 9/11," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 463-487, April.
    32. Kaye J. Newberry & Dan S. Dhaliwal, 2001. "Cross‐Jurisdictional Income Shifting by U.S. Multinationals: Evidence from International Bond Offerings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 643-662, December.
    33. Dane M. Christensen & Dan S. Dhaliwal & Steven Boivie & Scott D. Graffin, 2015. "Top management conservatism and corporate risk strategies: Evidence from managers' personal political orientation and corporate tax avoidance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(12), pages 1918-1938, December.
    34. Claude Berrebi & Jordan Ostwald, 2016. "Terrorism and the Labor Force," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 60(1), pages 32-60, February.
    35. Lutz James M & Lutz Brenda J, 2006. "Terrorism as Economic Warfare," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-22, May.
    36. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    37. Chen, Andrew H. & Siems, Thomas F., 2004. "The effects of terrorism on global capital markets," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 349-366, June.
    38. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Jagolinzer, Alan D. & Larcker, David F., 2015. "Corporate governance, incentives, and tax avoidance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 1-17.
    39. Taylor, Grantley & Richardson, Grant, 2012. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance Practices: Evidence from Australian Firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 469-496.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kovermann, Jost & Velte, Patrick, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Christofer Adrian & Mukesh Garg & Anh Viet Pham & Soon-Yeow Phang & Cameron Truong, 2023. "Do Natural Disasters Affect Corporate Tax Avoidance? The Case of Drought," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 105-135, August.
    3. Fangjun Wang & Shuolei Xu & Junqin Sun & Charles P. Cullinan, 2020. "Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Literature Review And Research Agenda," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 793-811, September.
    4. Argilés-Bosch, Josep M. & Somoza, Antonio & Ravenda, Diego & García-Blandón, Josep, 2020. "An empirical examination of the influence of e-commerce on tax avoidance in Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    5. Alharbi, Samar & Atawnah, Nader & Al Mamun, Md & Ali, Muhammad Jahangir, 2022. "Local culture and tax avoidance: Evidence from gambling preference behavior," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Dain C. Donelson & Jennifer L. Glenn & Christopher G. Yust, 2022. "Is tax aggressiveness associated with tax litigation risk? Evidence from D&O Insurance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 519-569, June.
    7. Chaudhry, Neeru, 2021. "Tax aggressiveness and idiosyncratic volatility," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    8. Ke Na & Wenjia Yan, 2022. "Languages and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 148-184, March.
    9. Francis, Bill & Teng, Haimeng & Wang, Ying & Wu, Qiang, 2022. "The effect of shareholder-debtholder conflicts on corporate tax aggressiveness: Evidence from dual holders," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. My Nguyen & Justin Hung Nguyen, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm tax avoidance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(4), pages 3935-3978, December.
    11. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Sun, Xian & Wu, Qiang, 2016. "CEO political preference and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 37-53.
    12. Onur Bayar & Fariz Huseynov & Sabuhi Sardarli, 2018. "Corporate Governance, Tax Avoidance, and Financial Constraints," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(3), pages 651-677, September.
    13. Cristi A. Gleason & Sascha Kieback & Martin Thomsen & Christoph Watrin, 2021. "Monitoring or payroll maximization? What happens when workers enter the boardroom?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1046-1087, September.
    14. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2016_005 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Belz, Thomas & von Hagen, Dominik & Steffens, Christian, 2019. "Taxes and firm size: Political cost or political power?," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1-28.
    16. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Sun, Xian & Wu, Qiang, 2016. "CEO political preference and corporate tax sheltering," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 5/2016, Bank of Finland.
    17. Wenzhou Qu & Shaoqing Kang & Lihong Wang, 2020. "Saving or tunnelling: value effects of tax avoidance in Chinese listed local government‐controlled firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(5), pages 4421-4465, December.
    18. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Sun, Xian & Wu, Qiang, 2016. "CEO political preference and corporate tax sheltering," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 37-53.
    19. Mahmud Hossain & Gerald J. Lobo & Santanu Mitra, 2023. "Firm-level political risk and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 295-327, January.
    20. Iatridis, George, 2012. "Terrorist attacks and company financial numbers: Evidence on earnings management and value relevance from Madrid, London and Istanbul," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 204-220.
    21. Lartey, Theophilus & Uddin, Moshfique & Danso, Albert & Wood, Geoffrey, 2022. "CEO overconfidence and IRS attention," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:58:y:2022:i:1:p:174-208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0001-3072 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.