To read this content please select one of the options below:

The effect of audit fees, audit quality and board ownership on tax aggressiveness: evidence from Thailand

Marziana Madah Marzuki (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Kelantan, Machang, Malaysia)
Muhammad Syukur (School of Management, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand)

Asian Review of Accounting

ISSN: 1321-7348

Article publication date: 12 October 2021

Issue publication date: 25 October 2021

1698

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of audit fees, auditors' quality and board ownership on tax aggressiveness in Thailand.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample of this study is based on 215 firm-year observations of SET-100 listed companies in Thailand during the 2010–2018 periods. This study employs a panel least square regression with period fixed effects. The study retrieved the corporate governance variables from the downloaded annual reports, whilst the remaining data were collected from the EMIS database.

Findings

This study provides evidence that audit fees reduce tax aggressiveness and board ownership enhance tax aggressiveness among the firms. Nonaudit services provided by auditors impair auditors' independence and lead to higher tax aggressiveness. The result supports the agency theory, which explains that managers and blockholders may enjoy private benefits of control at the expense of other shareholders in the absence of market control. Thus, firms need good governance practices such as incentives paid for the effort of auditors and nonaudit services monitoring to curb such exploitation.

Research limitations/implications

The results provide implications to the firms and regulators that incentives to the monitoring parties such as auditors can reduce tax aggressiveness among the firms. Nevertheless, higher ownership given to boards as incentives may lead to concentrated ownership and thus lead to the type 2 agency problem, which is between majority and minority shareholders. The result also provides caution to the regulators to monitor the nonaudit services provided by the auditors as it might impair their independence and compromise the tax paid to IRB.

Originality/value

This study is pioneer research discussing tax avoidance in Thailand. The Thai Government has been noticing that tax avoidance is being performed in the country, but academic discussion on this topic had never been elaborated.

Keywords

Citation

Madah Marzuki, M. and Muhammad Al-Amin, M.S. (2021), "The effect of audit fees, audit quality and board ownership on tax aggressiveness: evidence from Thailand", Asian Review of Accounting, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 617-636. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARA-11-2020-0179

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles