Search results

Are franking credit balances priced? This paper aims to investigate the valuation of franking credit balances via a determinant analysis and value relevance analysis.

The determinant analysis examines the factors that contribute to the increasing cumulative level of franking credit balances. Value relevance studies explore whether franking credit balances are priced in the market.

The results provide strong evidence of a size effect that the level of franking credit balances increases with firm size and weak evidence of an international focus effect that the level of franking credit balances increases with international ownership. They also find an individual dividend clientele effect that the level of franking credit balances decreases with individual ownership. They find significant evidence that franking credit balances are priced in the market. One dollar of franking credit is worth 1.4 dollars in firm value. That franking balances are capitalized at more than their face value suggests that franking credits signal firms' future dividend policy. They also find that the market valuation of franking balances increases with firm size but decreases with international focus.

This study provides direct evidence that franking credit balances are capitalized into equity prices. In the determinant analysis, this paper improves Heaney's (2009) model by using the percentage of international ownership as the proxy of international focus, thus addressing the limitation of his measure. In the value relevance tests, the study uses a modified model that includes log-transformation to reduce the skewness of variables based on Tanza's (2014) value relevance model. Moreover, the study suggests that the market valuation of franking credit balances increases with firm size, which contradicts Heaney's (2009) findings.

This paper aims to use rhetorical theory to understand how actors mobilise persuasive communication to justify the arguments for and against transfer pricing and tax management schemes in an international context. The strategic adoption of transfer pricing by transnational corporations is controversial since it affects wealth transfers.

This paper adopts a micro-rhetorical analysis of submissions to a recent government Inquiry in Australia based on Aristotle's appeals of logos, ethos and pathos. The arguments used by Chevron Australia, and its protagonist civil society organisation, the Tax Justice Network highlight the vexed nature of tax management schemes.

Transfer pricing (TP) is more than a mere technical practice, as it involves wealth transfers initiated by powerful economic players. From a neoliberal justification of fair markets and shareholder wealth maximisation, the moral ambiguity is attenuated because it is accepted as a normative social ideal.

Prior studies on TP and tax schemes are primarily theoretical and conceptual. This paper adopts a rhetorical approach which provides important insights into the communication devices used to legitimate taken-for-granted ideas about corporate actions.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of industry specialization of audit partners and audit committee members on the level of tax avoidance in Australian banks.

This study uses a multivariate regression analysis based on hand-collected data consisting of 180 observations from Australian domestic banks between 2010 and 2018.

The primary results of the empirical analysis indicate that audit partner industry specialization is negatively associated with the level of tax avoidance in Australian banks. Regarding the audit committee, the proportion of industry specialists among audit committee members reduces the magnitude of tax avoidance. These results are robust, as they hold the same for alternative measures of tax avoidance and industry specialization of audit partner and audit committee members. Results from supplementary analysis reveal that the interactive effect of both audit firm and audit partner industry specialization strengthens the auditors’ effectiveness in reducing the level of tax avoidance.

As this study highlights the importance of the industry specialization in decreasing tax avoidance, it can be beneficial for policymakers to assess the impact of good governance on the level of tax avoidance in the banking industry.

Even though the existing studies examine the link between the governance actors’ industry specialization and tax avoidance in nonfinancial firms, this paper explores the banking industry that differs from nonfinancial firms in among others; accounting and fiscal regulations. This study further provides unique evidence indicating that industry specialization of the audit partner constitutes a significant determinant of minimizing the bank’s level of tax avoidance.

Despite the unique features and potential applications in various industries, widespread blockchain adoption is hindered for several reasons. One of them is the lack of government regulations regarding blockchain and cryptocurrencies. However, a deliberate preliminary analysis of the policy initiatives by various jurisdictions proved otherwise, and a lack of sound academic literature on the policy initiatives on blockchain worldwide was evident. Addressing this gap, this study aims to summarize the policy initiatives of jurisdictions around the world, assessing if governments do not enact many regulations.

A systematic literature review was adopted in this study, in which the authors shortlisted a set of research papers and policy reports using several selection criteria and a screening process.

It was found that numerous policy initiatives have been enacted by governments worldwide, and blockchain applications are also being piloted or practiced successfully in several nations. It was also evident that governments are reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies as legal tender while embracing their underlying technology, blockchain.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper appears to be one of the first attempts to summarize the blockchain policy initiatives contributing to the body of knowledge on blockchain adoption.

This study examined social media, tax morale, and tax compliance behaviour. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to investigate the quantitative data gathered from 592 salaried and self-employed taxpayers in East Malaysia, comprising two regions – Sabah and Sarawak. The results showed that social media had no significant effect on tax compliance. There was, however, a significant and negative relationship between social media and tax morale. A significant and positive effect of tax morale on tax compliance was also discovered. The bootstrapping technique indicated that tax morale mediates the association between social media and tax compliance. This research is among the earliest in a developing country to investigate the effect of social media in enhancing tax compliance, thus, contributing to the tax literature with a broader focus.

Even as governments worldwide take extraordinary measures and spend unprecedented amounts of their state budgets to combat COVID-19, tax compliance remains challenging. Therefore, this study employs previously identified predictors to investigate the factors that persuade individual taxpayers to comply with the law.

Individual taxpayers in Indonesia (N = 699) who had experienced COVID-19-related benefits were asked to assess the provided evaluation regarding the tax compliance intention and its determinants. The bootstrapping analysis was employed using smart partial least squares (SmartPLS) to test the hypotheses.

The results suggest that the perceived fiscal exchange, tax morality, tax fairness, tax complexity and the power of authority are significant determinants of tax compliance intention. This study also supports the indirect effects of numerous factors on tax compliance intention through the perceived fiscal exchange and tax morality. In practice, reminding taxpayers of how tax payments fund public services, improving taxpayer morale, increasing the perceived fairness of the tax system, streamlining the tax code and managing the effectiveness of tax administration could all lead to a greater intention to comply with the law.

In addition to highlighting the dynamics of tax compliance amid the unprecedented pandemic crisis, our findings also provide insight into the importance of perceived fiscal exchange and tax morality for achieving and sustaining planned behavior to comply with tax rules.

This paper aims to examine the history of data leaks and investigative journalism, the techniques and technology that enable them and their influence in Australia and abroad. It explores the ethical and professional considerations of investigative journalists, how they approach privacy and information-sharing and how this differs from intelligence practice in government and industry. The paper assesses the strengths and limitations of Collaborative Investigative Reporting based on Information Leaks (CIRIL) as a kind of public-facing intelligence practice.

This study draws on academic literature, source material from investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and a survey of financial crime compliance professionals conducted in 2022.

The paper identifies three key causal factors that have enabled the rise of CIRIL even as traditional journalism has declined: the digital storage of information; increasing public interest in offshore finance and tax evasion; and “virtual newsrooms” enabled by internet communications. It concludes that the primary strength of CIRIL is its creation of complex global narratives to inform the public about corruption and tax evasion, while its key weakness is that the scale and breadth of the data released makes it difficult to focus on likely criminal activity. Results of a survey of industry and government professionals indicate that CIRIL is generally more effective as public information than as an investigative resource, owing to the volume, age and quality of information released. However, the trends enabling CIRIL are likely to continue, and this means that governments and financial institutions need to become more effective at using leaked information.

Over the past decade, large-scale, data-driven investigative journalism projects such as the Pandora Papers and the Russian Laundromat have had a significant public impact by exposing money laundering, financial crime and corruption. These projects share certain hallmarks: the use of human intelligence, often sourced from anonymous leaks; inventive fusion of this intelligence with data from open sources; and collaboration among a global collective of investigative journalists to build a narrative. These projects prioritise informing the public. They are also an important information source for government and private sector organisations working to investigate and disrupt financial crime.

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate if the legal status of a cannabis affects money laundering activity. The legal status of cannabis continues to evolve globally; at the same time, its market remains enormous. Much of this market represents dirty money from criminal acts, which often requires laundering. In the context of changing cannabis regulations, legislation, and policies, the authors propose the possible implications such changes may have on the extent of money laundering.

This paper proposes the implications of the evolution of cannabis regulations on money laundering activities, using the theoretical underpinning of rational choice. Using Australia as a replicable critical case study, the paper, using the Walker gravity model and using United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime-reported prices of cannabis from 2003 to 2017 and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reports empirically validates the effects of cannabis regulations on the proceeds available for laundering.

This study finds support for the argument that prohibitive measures toward cannabis use contribute to increases in the need to launder generated proceeds.

The findings can be replicated in other countries and may contribute to novel propositions within the debate on the legalization of cannabis use, which has, thus, far primarily focused on the areas of health, crime, taxation and education.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has yet attempted to provide an economic analysis of the effects of cannabis policy changes on money laundering.