IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v81y2024icp281-296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax incentives and earnings management: A study based on accelerated depreciation policy in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Jiangyuan
  • Fan, Wenlin
  • Wang, Zhixiao

Abstract

This paper uses the accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets implemented by Chinese tax authorities since 2014 to explore the relationship between tax incentives and earnings management. Results report the following: (1) The accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets causes a significant increase in earnings management and the result persists after accounting for endogeneity problems; and (2) the accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets has a more significant effect on firms with small pre-policy book-tax differences and low pre-policy investment growth. This paper supplements the research that tax policy affects earnings management behavior of firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Jiangyuan & Fan, Wenlin & Wang, Zhixiao, 2024. "Tax incentives and earnings management: A study based on accelerated depreciation policy in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 281-296.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:81:y:2024:i:c:p:281-296
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2023.11.036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S031359262300317X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2023.11.036?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Jacob, Martin & Kalbitz, Nadine & Wentland, Kelly, 2023. "How do corporate tax rates alter conforming tax avoidance?," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 277, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    2. Tang, Meili & Wang, Yu, 2022. "Tax incentives and corporate social responsibility: The role of cash savings from accelerated depreciation policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    3. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    4. Mihir A. Desai, 2005. "The Degradation of Reported Corporate Profits," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 171-192, Fall.
    5. Nan-Ting Kuo & Cheng Few Lee, 2020. "A Potential Benefit of Increasing Book–Tax Conformity: Evidence from the Reduction in Audit Fees," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Cheng Few Lee & John C Lee (ed.), HANDBOOK OF FINANCIAL ECONOMETRICS, MATHEMATICS, STATISTICS, AND MACHINE LEARNING, chapter 3, pages 151-197, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Chung‐Hua Shen & Hsiang‐Lin Chih, 2007. "Earnings Management and Corporate Governance in Asia's Emerging Markets," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 999-1021, September.
    7. Sundvik, Dennis, 2017. "Book-tax conformity and earnings management in response to tax rate cuts," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 31-42.
    8. Paolo M. Panteghini & Sergio Vergalli, 2016. "Accelerated depreciation, default risk and investment decisions," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 113-130, October.
    9. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1637-1667, October.
    10. Jackson, Scott B. & (Kelvin) Liu, Xiaotao & Cecchini, Mark, 2009. "Economic consequences of firms' depreciation method choice: Evidence from capital investments," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 54-68, October.
    11. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    12. Atwood, T.J. & Drake, Michael S. & Myers, Linda A., 2010. "Book-tax conformity, earnings persistence and the association between earnings and future cash flows," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 111-125, May.
    13. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    14. Yung, Kenneth & Root, Andrew, 2019. "Policy uncertainty and earnings management: International evidence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 255-267.
    15. Gao, Shenghao & Meng, Qingbin & Chan, Kam C. & Wu, Weixing, 2017. "Earnings management before IPOs: Are institutional investors misled?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 90-108.
    16. Alan J. Auerbach, 1982. "The New Economics of Accelerated Depreciation," NBER Working Papers 0848, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Lan, Fei & Wang, Wei & Cao, Qingzi, 2020. "Tax cuts and enterprises’ R&D intensity: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 304-314.
    18. Hanlon, Michelle & Maydew, Edward L. & Shevlin, Terry, 2008. "An unintended consequence of book-tax conformity: A loss of earnings informativeness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2-3), pages 294-311, December.
    19. Desai, Mihir A. & Dharmapala, Dhammika, 2006. "Corporate tax avoidance and high-powered incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 145-179, January.
    20. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    21. Ohrn, Eric, 2019. "The effect of tax incentives on U.S. manufacturing: Evidence from state accelerated depreciation policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    22. Hagen Ackermann & Martin Fochmann & Nadja Wolf, 2016. "The Effect of Straight-Line and Accelerated Depreciation Rules on Risky Investment Decisions—An Experimental Study," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-26, October.
    23. Fan, Ziying & Liu, Yu, 2020. "Tax Compliance and Investment Incentives: Firm Responses to Accelerated Depreciation in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 1-17.
    24. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Jacob, Martin & Kalbitz, Nadine & Wentland, Kelly, 2020. "Tax-induced earnings management and book-tax conformity: International evidence from unconsolidated accounts," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 252, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    25. Hutton, Amy P. & Marcus, Alan J. & Tehranian, Hassan, 2009. "Opaque financial reports, R2, and crash risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 67-86, October.
    26. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    27. Paolo M. Panteghini & Sergio Vergalli, 2016. "Accelerated depreciation, default risk and investment decisions," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 113-130, October.
    28. Nan-Ting Kuo & Cheng-Few Lee, 2019. "Earnings Management in Response to Corporate Tax Rate Reduction Under an Imputation Tax System," The International Journal of Accounting (TIJA), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 54(01), pages 1-34, March.
    29. Hanlon, Michelle & Laplante, Stacie Kelley & Shevlin, Terry, 2005. "Evidence for the Possible Information Loss of Conforming Book Income and Taxable Income," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 407-442, October.
    30. Maydew, EL, 1997. "Tax-induced earnings management by firms with net operating losses," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 83-96.
    31. Lexin Zhao & Qianbin Feng & Wen-Quan Hu, 2022. "Investment incentives and labor share: evidence from accelerated depreciation policy in China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(41), pages 4751-4766, September.
    32. Sabrina T. Howell & Filippo Mezzanotti, 2019. "Financing Entrepreneurship through the Tax Code: Angel Investor Tax Credits," NBER Working Papers 26486, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Eric Zwick & James Mahon, 2017. "Tax Policy and Heterogeneous Investment Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 217-248, January.
    34. He, Guanming, 2016. "Fiscal Support and Earnings Management," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 57-84.
    35. Zhao, Lexin & Fang, Hongsheng, 2022. "Investment incentives and the relative demand for skilled labor: Evidence from accelerated depreciation policies in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    36. Edgerton, Jesse, 2010. "Investment incentives and corporate tax asymmetries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 936-952, December.
    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. Khurram, Muhammad Usman & Abbassi, Wajih & Chen, Yifan & Chen, Lifeng, 2024. "Outward foreign investment performance, digital transformation, and ESG performance: Evidence from China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Zhao, Lin & Chong, Kim Mee & Gooi, Leong-Mow & Yan, Luqing, 2024. "Research on the impact of government fiscal subsidies and tax incentive mechanism on the output of green patents in enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(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. Luca Menicacci, 2022. "Financial reporting and book-tax conformity: A review of the issues," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(1), pages 41-77.
    2. Tang, Meili & Wang, Yu, 2022. "Tax incentives and corporate social responsibility: The role of cash savings from accelerated depreciation policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    3. Floropoulos, Stylianos & Tsipouridou, Maria & Spathis, Charalambos, 2024. "Book-tax conformity and earnings management: A research agenda," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Jacob, Martin & Kalbitz, Nadine & Wentland, Kelly, 2020. "Tax-induced earnings management and book-tax conformity: International evidence from unconsolidated accounts," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 252, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    5. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    6. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    7. Karampinis, Nikolaos I. & Hevas, Dimosthenis L., 2013. "Effects of IFRS Adoption on Tax-induced Incentives for Financial Earnings Management: Evidence from Greece," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 218-247.
    8. Zhang, Yuyang & Uchida, Konari & Dong, Liping, 2020. "External financing and earnings management: Evidence from international data," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Tanya Y.H. Tang, 2015. "Does Book-Tax Conformity Deter Opportunistic Book and Tax Reporting? An International Analysis," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 441-469, September.
    10. Graham, John R. & Raedy, Jana S. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 2012. "Research in accounting for income taxes," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 412-434.
    11. Evers, Maria Theresia & Meier, Ina & Nicolay, Katharina, 2017. "The implications of book-tax differences: A meta-analysis," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-003, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Yang, Jingwen & Hemmings, Danial & Jaafar, Aziz & Jackson, Richard H.G., 2022. "The real earnings management gap between private and public firms: Evidence from Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    13. Moore, Jared A. & Xu, Li, 2018. "Book-tax differences and costs of private debt," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 70-82.
    14. Evers, Maria Theresia & Meier, Ina & Nicolay, Katharina, 2016. "Book-tax conformity and reporting behavior: A quasi-experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-008, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Yixuan Qin & Chengsi Zhang, 2022. "Financial structure and earnings manipulation activities in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 2593-2621, August.
    16. Bradley Blaylock & Fabio B. Gaertner & Terry Shevlin, 2017. "Book-tax conformity and capital structure," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 903-932, June.
    17. Cao, Zhangfan & Rees, William & Zhang, Zhifang, 2023. "The effect of real earnings smoothing on corporate labour investment," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    18. Liu, Xiufen & Fang, Hongsheng & Zhao, Lexin & Xu, Wenli, 2023. "Do VAT cuts help stabilize employment? Evidence from China’s VAT rate reform," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 190-207.
    19. Zeng, Jing & Chan, Kam C., 2023. "The tax incentives and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of an accelerated depreciation tax policy for fixed assets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. Audrey Hsu & Sophia Liu, 2023. "The effect of book-tax conformity on the information environment: from the analyst perspective," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 535-565, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax incentives; Accelerated depreciation policy for fixed asset; Earnings management; Book-tax differences; Investment growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:eee:ecanpo:v:81:y:2024:i:c:p:281-296. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    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.