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Investment, accounting, and the salience of the corporate income tax

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  • Jesse Edgerton

    (Federal Reserve Board)

Abstract

This paper develops and tests the hypothesis that accounting rules mitigate the effect of tax policy on firm investment decisions by obscuring the timing of tax pay-ments. I model a firm that maximises a discounted weighted average of after-tax cash flows and accounting profits. I estimate the weight placed on accounting profits by comparing the effectiveness of tax incentives that do and do not affect them. Investment tax credits, which do affect accounting profits, have larger effects on investment than accelerated depreciation, which does not. This difference in estimated effects is not obviously driven by discounting, cash flow effects, or measurement error. Results thus suggest that accelerated depreciation provisions are less effective than they otherwise would be and that the corporate income tax could create smaller distortions to investment decisions than we would otherwise estimate.

Suggested Citation

  • Jesse Edgerton, 2012. "Investment, accounting, and the salience of the corporate income tax," Working Papers 1230, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    • Handle: RePEc:btx:wpaper:1230
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    File URL: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Business_Taxation/Docs/WP1230.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Chong Liu & Bangxi Li & Jim Huangnan Shen, 2025. "Accelerated depreciation and investment-driven growth: a Marx-Okishio approach," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 181-211, April.
    2. Cristian Carini & Michele Moretto & Paolo M. Panteghini & Sergio Vergalli, 2020. "Deferred taxation under default risk," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 33-48, January.
    3. Sebastian Eichfelder & Kerstin Schneider, 2014. "Tax Incentives and Business Investment: Evidence from German Bonus Depreciation," CESifo Working Paper Series 4805, CESifo.
    4. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Knaisch, Jonas David & Schneider, Kerstin, 2025. "Bonus depreciation as instrument for structural economic policy: Effects on investment and asset structure," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 288, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    5. Eichfelder, Sebastian & Knaisch, Jonas & Schneider, Kerstin, 2023. "How does bonus depreciation affect real investment? Effect size, asset structure, and tax planning," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 278, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    6. Cui, Wei & Hicks, Jeffrey & Xing, Jing, 2022. "Cash on the table? Imperfect take-up of tax incentives and firm investment behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    7. Becker, Johannes & Steinhoff, Melanie, 2014. "Tax accounting principles and corporate risk-taking," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 79-81.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

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