IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/por/fepwps/597.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax and financial reporting aggressiveness: evidence from Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Fernandes

    (Alexandra Fernandes)

  • António Cerqueira

    (António Cerqueira)

  • Elísio Brandão

    (Elísio Brandão)

Abstract

This study examines the relation between financial and tax aggressive reports on public companies from Europe-15, over the period of 2001-2015. Also, it pretends to analyse if the link between tax and financial aggressiveness gets weaker after IFRS adoption in Europe. To run empirical work, I use discretionary accruals calculated by modified-Jones model (Dechow, Sloan, and Sweeney 1995) as a proxy of financial aggressiveness (DFIN) and discretionary permanent differences as a measure of tax aggressiveness (DTAX) (used by Mary Frank, Luann Lynch and Sonja Rego, 2009), which I estimate using EGLS cross section weights for year and Fama- French 12 industries. To prove that firms with aggressive tax report tend to be financial aggressive and that the link between tax and financial aggressiveness is more significant before IFRS implementation I analyse Pearson and Spearman correlation. Additionally, I estimate relation between DTAX and DFIN when controlling for firm size, earnings management and tax planning incentives using OLS and apply the same model with period restriction for before and after IFRS adoption. Results suggest that financial aggressive firms tend to also be tax aggressive and the link between these two aggressive reports is weaker after IFRS adoption

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Fernandes & António Cerqueira & Elísio Brandão, 2017. "Tax and financial reporting aggressiveness: evidence from Europe," FEP Working Papers 597, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    • Handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.fep.up.pt/investigacao/workingpapers/wp597.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. Huizinga, Harry & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2006. "Foreign ownership and corporate income taxation: An empirical evaluation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 1223-1244, July.
    3. Can common empirical tests reliably identify tax avoidance? This is an important question because our understanding of the determinants of tax avoidance largely depends on results generated using such, 2017. "How Reliably Do Empirical Tests Identify Tax Avoidance?," Research Papers 3446, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    4. Mihir A. Desai, 2003. "The Divergence between Book Income and Tax Income," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, pages 169-208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. 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.
    6. Axel Haller, 2002. "Financial accounting developments in the European Union: past events and future prospects," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 153-190.
    7. Jeanjean, Thomas & Stolowy, Hervé, 2008. "Do accounting standards matter? An exploratory analysis of earnings management before and after IFRS adoption," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 480-494.
    8. Charoenwong, Charlie & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2009. "Earnings management to exceed thresholds: Evidence from Singapore and Thailand," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 221-236, July.
    9. Anastasia Kraft, 2014. "What Really Affects German Firms' Effective Tax Rate?," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(3), pages 1-19, July.
    10. David Holland & Alan Ramsay, 2003. "Do Australian companies manage earnings to meet simple earnings benchmarks?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 43(1), pages 41-62, March.
    11. 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.
    12. Caramanis, Constantinos & Lennox, Clive, 2008. "Audit effort and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 116-138, March.
    13. 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.
    14. Paul Hribar & Daniel W. Collins, 2002. "Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 105-134, 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. Salsabila Anggiani Amriza & Nurul Aisyah Rachmawati, 2021. "The influence factors of the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness in Indonesia," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 213-220, September.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Moore, Jared A. & Xu, Li, 2018. "Book-tax differences and costs of private debt," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 70-82.
    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. 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.
    7. Luca Menicacci, 2022. "Financial reporting and book-tax conformity: A review of the issues," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(1), pages 41-77.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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..
    11. Ester Chen & Ilanit Gavious & Tom Smith, 2017. "The roles of book-tax conformity and tax enforcement in regulating tax reporting behaviour following International Financial Reporting Standards adoption," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(3), pages 681-699, September.
    12. Behnam Karamshahi & Zeinab Azami & Tabandeh Salehi, 2018. "The association between competition power in markets and tax avoidance: evidence from Tehran stock exchange," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(3), pages 323-339, September.
    13. Sílvio Hiroshi Nakao & Sidney J. Gray, 2018. "The Impact of IFRS in Brazil: The Legacy of Mandatory Book‐tax Conformity," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(4), pages 482-495, December.
    14. 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.
    15. Clive Lennox & Petro Lisowsky & Jeffrey Pittman, 2013. "Tax Aggressiveness and Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 739-778, September.
    16. 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.
    17. Tang, Tanya Y.H. & Firth, Michael, 2012. "Earnings Persistence and Stock Market Reactions to the Different Information in Book-Tax Differences: Evidence from China," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 369-397.
    18. 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.
    19. Aaron Crabtree & Thomas Kubick, 2014. "Corporate tax avoidance and the timeliness of annual earnings announcements," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 51-67, January.
    20. Kovermann, Jost & Wendt, Martin, 2019. "Tax avoidance in family firms: Evidence from large private firms," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-157.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax planning; earnings management; book tax differences; aggressive financial report; aggressive tax report.;
    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
    • F62 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Macroeconomic Impacts
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:por:fepwps:597. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fepuppt.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.