IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intfin/v48y2017icp99-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax avoidance in response to a decline in the funding status of defined benefit pension plans

Author

Listed:
  • Chaudhry, Neeru
  • Au Yong, Hue Hwa
  • Veld, Chris

Abstract

We examine the effect of the funding status of defined benefit (DB) pension plans on company tax avoidance behavior. Our results reveal that firms engage more in tax avoidance when the pension deficit, defined as pension liabilities minus pension assets scaled by total assets, increases. We find that for an average pension deficit firm one standard deviation increase in pension deficit is associated with annual tax savings of $3.64million. For 2014 we find that, on the aggregate level, for firms with underfunded DB pension plans a one standard deviation increase in pension deficit is associated with annual tax savings of more than 2.7billion dollars. Our results hold after controlling for factors such as profitability, financial constraints, operating losses, and foreign income.

Suggested Citation

  • Chaudhry, Neeru & Au Yong, Hue Hwa & Veld, Chris, 2017. "Tax avoidance in response to a decline in the funding status of defined benefit pension plans," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 99-116.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:48:y:2017:i:c:p:99-116
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2016.12.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042443116302335
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intfin.2016.12.004?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. 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. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Larcker, David F., 2012. "The incentives for tax planning," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 391-411.
    3. 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.
    4. Neeru Chaudhry & Hue Hwa Au Yong & Chris Veld, 2017. "How does the Funding Status of Defined Benefit Pension Plans Affect Investment Decisions of Firms in the United States?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1-2), pages 196-235, January.
    5. 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.
    6. Sharad Asthana, 1999. "Determinants of Funding Strategies and Actuarial Choices for Defined†Benefit Pension Plans," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 39-74, March.
    7. Mark A. Carlson, 2006. "A brief history of the 1987 stock market crash with a discussion of the Federal Reserve response," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-13, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Carl E. Walsh, 1993. "What caused the 1990-1991 recession?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 33-48.
    9. John L. Campbell & Dan S. Dhaliwal & William C. Schwartz, 2012. "Financing Constraints and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from the Funding of Corporate Pension Plans," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 868-912.
    10. Cocco, João F. & Volpin, Paolo F., 2013. "Corporate Pension Plans as Takeover Deterrents," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 1119-1144, August.
    11. Petro Lisowsky & Leslie Robinson & Andrew Schmidt, 2013. "Do Publicly Disclosed Tax Reserves Tell Us About Privately Disclosed Tax Shelter Activity?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 583-629, June.
    12. Joshua D. Rauh, 2006. "Investment and Financing Constraints: Evidence from the Funding of Corporate Pension Plans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 33-71, February.
    13. Mills, Lillian F., 1996. "Corporate Tax Compliance and Financial Reporting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 49(3), pages 421-33, September.
    14. Francesco Franzoni & José M. Marín, 2006. "Pension Plan Funding and Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 921-956, April.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. 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.
    17. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1997. "Industry costs of equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, February.
    18. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    19. Mills, Lillian F., 1996. "Corporate Tax Compliance and Financial Reporting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 49(3), pages 421-433, September.
    20. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    21. Anil Shivdasani & Irina Stefanescu, 2010. "How Do Pensions Affect Corporate Capital Structure Decisions?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 1287-1323, March.
    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. Hao Li & Jinsha Zhao, 2020. "Inside debt and firm risk‐taking: Evidence from the UK pension reform," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(9-10), pages 1316-1364, October.
    2. Kabir, Rezaul & Li, Hao & Veld-Merkoulova, Yulia, 2018. "Do managers act opportunistically towards the end of their career?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 218-232.

    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. Shams, Syed & Bose, Sudipta & Gunasekarage, Abeyratna, 2022. "Does corporate tax avoidance promote managerial empire building?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    2. 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.
    3. Juan Monterrey Mayoral & Amparo Sánchez Segura, 2015. "Planificación fiscal y Gobierno Corporativo en las empresas cotizadas españolas," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 214(3), pages 55-89, September.
    4. Chaudhry, Neeru, 2021. "Tax aggressiveness and idiosyncratic volatility," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Almaghrabi, Khadija S., 2023. "Non‐operating risk and cash holdings: Evidence from pension risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    6. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2016_005 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Khedmati, Mehdi & Shams, Syed M.M., 2020. "Managerial acquisitiveness and corporate tax avoidance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Paul Demeré & Michael P. Donohoe & Petro Lisowsky, 2020. "The Economic Effects of Special Purpose Entities on Corporate Tax Avoidance," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1562-1597, September.
    9. Tao Chen & Sidney Leung & Lingmin Xie, 2021. "Does credit rating conservatism matter for corporate tax avoidance?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5681-5730, December.
    10. 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.
    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. Allison Koester & Terry Shevlin & Daniel Wangerin, 2017. "The Role of Managerial Ability in Corporate Tax Avoidance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3285-3310, October.
    13. 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.
    14. Chen, Yangyang & Ge, Rui & Zolotoy, Leon, 2017. "Do corporate pension plans affect audit pricing?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 322-337.
    15. Taylor, Grantley & Richardson, Grant, 2014. "Incentives for corporate tax planning and reporting: Empirical evidence from Australia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15.
    16. Zheng, Suyan, 2017. "Can corporate diversification induce more tax avoidance?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 47-60.
    17. John Gallemore & Brandon Gipper & Edward Maydew, 2019. "Banks as Tax Planning Intermediaries," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 169-209, March.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. Richardson, Grant & Lanis, Roman & Taylor, Grantley, 2015. "Financial distress, outside directors and corporate tax aggressiveness spanning the global financial crisis: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 112-129.
    21. Goto, Shingo & Yanase, Noriyoshi, 2021. "Pension return assumptions and shareholder-employee risk-shifting," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax avoidance; Tax planning; Defined benefit pension plan; Pension deficit; Underfunded pension plan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

    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:intfin:v:48:y:2017:i:c:p:99-116. 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.elsevier.com/locate/intfin .

    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.