IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v19y2014i4d10.1007_s11142-013-9274-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Valuation of tax expense

Author

Listed:
  • Jacob Thomas

    (Yale University)

  • Frank Zhang

    (Yale University)

Abstract

As tax expense reflects value lost to taxes paid, it should be negatively associated with value, provided nontax, value-relevant information is controlled for. However, valuation regressions estimated in prior research—using contemporaneous tax expense and nontax variables—document substantial variation in the coefficients on tax expense, ranging from significant negative to significant positive values. We show this variation is (a) caused by the omission of expected future profitability, and (b) explained by many factors that cause variation in the correlations among included variables and omitted future profitability. Unfortunately, difficulties associated with separating the impact of individual factors hampers tax research investigating determinants of the value relevance of tax expense.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacob Thomas & Frank Zhang, 2014. "Valuation of tax expense," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1436-1467, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:19:y:2014:i:4:d:10.1007_s11142-013-9274-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-013-9274-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-013-9274-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-013-9274-3?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Dan S. Dhaliwal & Robert H. Trezevant & Michael S. Wilkins, 2000. "Tests of a Deferred Tax Explanation of the Negative Association between the LIFO Reserve and Firm Value," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 41-59, March.
    3. Teets, Walter R. & Wasley, Charles E., 1996. "Estimating earnings response coefficients: Pooled versus firm-specific models," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 279-295, June.
    4. Lipe, Rc, 1986. "The Information Contained In The Components Of Earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24, pages 37-64.
    5. Benjamin C. Ayers & John (Xuefeng) Jiang & Stacie K. Laplante, 2009. "Taxable Income as a Performance Measure: The Effects of Tax Planning and Earnings Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 15-54, March.
    6. Degeorge, Francois & Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1999. "Earnings Management to Exceed Thresholds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(1), pages 1-33, January.
    7. Ball, R & Brown, P, 1968. "Empirical Evaluation Of Accounting Income Numbers," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(2), pages 159-178.
    8. Lev, B, 1989. "On The Usefulness Of Earnings And Earnings Research - Lessons And Directions From 2 Decades Of Empirical-Research," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27, pages 153-192.
    9. 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.
    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. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    12. Freeman, Rn & Tse, Sy, 1992. "A Nonlinear Model Of Security Price Responses To Unexpected Earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 185-209.
    13. Easton, Pd & Harris, Ts, 1991. "Earnings As An Explanatory Variable For Returns," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 19-36.
    14. Liu, J & Thomas, J, 2000. "Stock returns and accounting earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 71-101.
    15. Jacob Thomas & Frank X. Zhang, 2011. "Tax Expense Momentum," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 49(3), pages 791-821, June.
    16. Elliott, JA & Hanna, JD, 1996. "Repeated accounting write-offs and the information content of earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34, pages 135-155.
    17. David P. Weber, 2009. "Do Analysts and Investors Fully Appreciate the Implications of Book†Tax Differences for Future Earnings?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 1175-1206, December.
    18. Lev, B & Thiagarajan, Sr, 1993. "Fundamental Information Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 190-215.
    19. Eli Amir & Michael Kirschenheiter & Kristen Willard, 1997. "The Valuation of Deferred Taxes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 597-622, December.
    20. Jegadeesh N. & Titman S., 1995. "Short-Horizon Return Reversals and the Bid-Ask Spread," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 116-132, April.
    21. Dan S. Dhaliwal & Cristi A. Gleason & Lillian F. Mills, 2004. "Last†Chance Earnings Management: Using the Tax Expense to Meet Analysts' Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 431-459, June.
    22. Amir, E. & Kirschenheiter, M. & Willard, K., 1997. "Firm Valuation with Deferred Taxes: A Theoretical Framework," Papers 97-13, Columbia - Graduate School of Business.
    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. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    2. Jacob Thomas & Frank X. Zhang, 2011. "Tax Expense Momentum," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 49(3), pages 791-821, June.
    3. Kerr, Jon N., 2019. "The value relevance of taxes: International evidence on the proxy for profitability role of tax surprise," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 297-305.
    4. 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.
    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. Ostad, Parastoo & Mella, Javier, 2023. "The value relevance of corporate tax expenses in the presence of partisanship: International evidence," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    7. Bok Baik & Kyonghee Kim & Richard Morton & Yongoh Roh, 2016. "Analysts’ pre-tax income forecasts and the tax expense anomaly," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 559-595, June.
    8. Jacob Thomas & Frank Zhang, 2007. "Tax Expense Surprises and Future Returns," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2531, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Feb 2008.
    9. Mohamed Sellami, 2006. "Typologie des déterminants comptables de la valeur : Apports de l'approche économique de l'information dans la mesure de la valeur," Post-Print halshs-00558252, HAL.
    10. Kevin A. Diehl,, 2010. "Ratio Of Deferred Tax Liabilities To Shares As A Predictor Of Stock Prices," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 2(1), pages 95-105.
    11. 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.
    12. Dan S. Dhaliwal & Steven E. Kaplan & Rick C. Laux & Eric Weisbrod, 2013. "The Information Content of Tax Expense for Firms Reporting Losses," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 51(1), pages 135-164, March.
    13. Peng-Chia Chiu & Timothy D. Haight, 2020. "Investor learning, earnings signals, and stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 671-698, February.
    14. Paul Demeré, 2023. "Is tax return information useful to equity investors?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1413-1465, September.
    15. S. P. Kothari & Charles Wasley, 2019. "Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 57(5), pages 1117-1159, December.
    16. Lynn Rees & Wayne Thomas, 2010. "The stock price effects of changes in dispersion of investor beliefs during earnings announcements," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 1-31, March.
    17. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:126-151 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Anna Görlitz & Michael Dobler, 2023. "Financial accounting for deferred taxes: a systematic review of empirical evidence," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 113-165, February.
    19. Ruey S. Tsay & Yi-Mien Lin & Hsiao-Wen Wang, 2009. "Residual income, non-earnings information, and information content," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 487-511.
    20. Somnath Das & Baruch Lev, 1994. "Nonlinearity in the Returns†Earnings Relation: Tests of Alternative Specifications and Explanations," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 353-379, June.
    21. Itay Kama, 2009. "On the Market Reaction to Revenue and Earnings Surprises," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1-2), pages 31-50.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:spr:reaccs:v:19:y:2014:i:4:d:10.1007_s11142-013-9274-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.