IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v61y2021i3p4967-5000.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax avoidance and firm risk: evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Yuqiang Cao
  • Zhuoan Feng
  • Meiting Lu
  • Yaowen Shan

Abstract

Prior literature documents puzzling evidence revealing that tax avoidance activities do not affect firm‐specific risk. Using an extended US sample, we find that lower cash effective tax rates (ETRs) are associated with higher future return volatility, supporting the traditional view of tax risk–return trade‐off. In sharp contrast to the US evidence, our analysis of Chinese firms suggests that Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) with lower cash and GAAP ETRs tend to have lower future risk. In addition, we adopt a difference‐in‐differences approach based on the variations generated by two exogenous, anti‐tax avoidance regulations in China but find no evidence suggesting a causal relationship between tax avoidance and firm risk. Overall, our results suggest that the relationship between tax avoidance and risk varies across countries, sample periods and tax aggressiveness measures, and we highlight the importance of addressing the endogenous nature in future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuqiang Cao & Zhuoan Feng & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan, 2021. "Tax avoidance and firm risk: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4967-5000, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:3:p:4967-5000
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12769
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12769
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12769?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. Bradley Blaylock & Bradley P. Lawson & Michael A. Mayberry, 2020. "Taxable income, future profitability, and stock returns," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7-8), pages 858-881, July.
    2. 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.
    3. Wei Cen & Naqiong Tong & Yushi Sun, 2017. "Tax avoidance and cost of debt: evidence from a natural experiment in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(5), pages 1517-1556, December.
    4. Badertscher, Brad A. & Katz, Sharon P. & Rego, Sonja O., 2013. "The separation of ownership and control and corporate tax avoidance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 228-250.
    5. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    6. Steven X. Wei & Chu Zhang, 2006. "Why Did Individual Stocks Become More Volatile?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(1), pages 259-292, January.
    7. Bradshaw, Mark & Liao, Guanmin & Ma, Mark (Shuai), 2019. "Agency costs and tax planning when the government is a major Shareholder," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 255-277.
    8. 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.
    9. Michelle Hanlon & Edward L. Maydew & Daniel Saavedra, 2017. "The taxman cometh: Does tax uncertainty affect corporate cash holdings?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1198-1228, September.
    10. Gallemore, John & Labro, Eva, 2015. "The importance of the internal information environment for tax avoidance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 149-167.
    11. K. Hung Chan & Phyllis L. L. Mo & Amy Y. Zhou & Steven Cahan, 2013. "Government ownership, corporate governance and tax aggressiveness: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(4), pages 1029-1051, December.
    12. McClure, Ross & Lanis, Roman & Wells, Peter & Govendir, Brett, 2018. "The impact of dividend imputation on corporate tax avoidance: The case of shareholder value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 492-514.
    13. Scholes, Ms & Wilson, Gp & Wolfson, Ma, 1992. "Firms Responses To Anticipated Reductions In Tax Rates - The Tax-Reform Act Of 1986," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30, pages 161-185.
    14. Jennifer Blouin, 2014. "Defining and Measuring Tax Planning Aggressiveness," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(4), pages 875-900, December.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    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. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jielin Jing & Jianling Wang & Qingjun Wu, 2022. "Litigation Risk and Corporate Social Responsibility—Evidence from a Poverty Alleviation Campaign in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Can Huang & Yuqiang Cao & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Yizhou Zhang, 2023. "Messages in online stock forums and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 3011-3041, September.
    3. Yuqiang Cao & Weiming Liang & Guocheng Yang & Jun Yin, 2022. "Judicial Independence and Domestic Supply Chain: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Huacheng Rao & Dongxu Chen & Feichao Shen & Yangyang Shen, 2022. "Can Green Bonds Stimulate Green Innovation in Enterprises? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Xijia Huang & Yiting Guo & Yuming Lin & Liping Liu & Kai Yan, 2022. "Green Loans and Green Innovations: Evidence from China’s Equator Principles Banks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.
    6. Xi Zhong & Liuyang Ren & Ge Ren, 2023. "Performance shortfall, institutional logic and firms’ tax avoidance," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(4), pages 855-886, December.
    7. Maoli Ji & Yuguang Ji & Shulan Dong, 2022. "Environmental Accounting Information Disclosure Driving Factors: The Case of Listed Firms in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-23, November.
    8. Baptiste Souillard, 2022. "Profit Shifting, Employee Pay, and Inequalities: Evidence from US-Listed Companies," CESifo Working Paper Series 9720, CESifo.
    9. Wang, Wei & Wang, Hua & Wu, Ji (George), 2021. "Mixed ownership reform and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence of Chinese listed firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Cao, Yuqiang & Li, Chenglin & Liu, Xinghe & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and debt allocation within business groups," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    11. Deli Wang & Ke Peng & Kaiye Tang & Yewei Wu, 2022. "Does Fintech Development Enhance Corporate ESG Performance? Evidence from an Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.
    12. He, Yuhan & Yi, Yang, 2023. "Digitalization of tax administration and corporate performance: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Chen, Jing & Liu, Xinghe & Ou, Fenghao & Lu, Meiting & Wang, Peipei, 2023. "Green lending and stock price crash risk: Evidence from the green credit reform in China," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

    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. Han, Xiaomei & Wang, Jie & Cheng, Hanxiu, 2021. "The effect of corporate tax avoidance on salary distribution——Empirical evidence from publicly listed companies in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    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. Andrew M. Bauer & Junxiong Fang & Jeffrey Pittman & Yinqi Zhang & Yuping Zhao, 2020. "How Aggressive Tax Planning Facilitates the Diversion of Corporate Resources: Evidence from Path Analysis†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1882-1913, September.
    5. Feng Huang & Jie Gao, 2022. "Customer and Tax Avoidance: How Does Customer Geographic Proximity Affect a Supplier’s Tax Avoidance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-30, November.
    6. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Lobo, Gerald J. & Qiu, Buhui, 2021. "Organizational capital, corporate tax avoidance, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Shen, Yuxin & Xu, Hanwen & Yu, Shuangli & Xu, Wei & Shen, Yongjian, 2022. "Air pollution and tax avoidance: New evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 402-420.
    8. Li, Xiaoxia & Cai, Guilong & Luo, Danglun, 2020. "GDP distortion and tax avoidance in local SOEs: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 582-598.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Arfah Habib Saragih & Syaiful Ali, 2023. "Corporate tax risk: a literature review and future research directions," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 527-577, June.
    12. Long, Wenbin & Wu, Huiying & Li, Lidan & Ying, Sammy Xiaoyan & Li, Sihai, 2024. "Mixed-ownership structure, non-state-blockholder coalition, and tax avoidance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Chen, Shenglan & Ma, Hui & Teng, Haimeng & Wu, Qiang, 2022. "Banking liberalization and corporate tax planning: Evidence from natural experiments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Brooks, Chris & Godfrey, Chris & Hillenbrand, Carola & Money, Kevin, 2016. "Do investors care about corporate taxes?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 218-248.
    15. Ke Na & Wenjia Yan, 2022. "Languages and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 148-184, March.
    16. Chii-Shyan Kuo, 2022. "Family firms, tax avoidance, and socioemotional wealth: evidence from tax reform in Taiwan," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1535-1572, May.
    17. 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.
    18. He Xiao & Jianqun Xi, 2023. "The Impact of Institutional Cross‐ownership on Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 33(1), pages 86-105, March.
    19. Martin Jacob & Anna Rohlfing-Bastian & Kai Sandner, 2021. "Why do not all firms engage in tax avoidance?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 459-495, February.
    20. Wei Cen & Naqiong Tong & Yushi Sun, 2017. "Tax avoidance and cost of debt: evidence from a natural experiment in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(5), pages 1517-1556, December.

    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:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:3:p:4967-5000. 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-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    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.