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1 – 10 of over 1000Grant Richardson, Grantley Taylor and Mostafa Hasan
This study examines the importance of income income-shifting arrangements of US multinational corporations (MNCs) on future stock price crash risk.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the importance of income income-shifting arrangements of US multinational corporations (MNCs) on future stock price crash risk.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a sample of 7,641 corporation-year observations over the 2005–2017 period and uses ordinary least squares regression analysis.
Findings
The authors find that the income-shifting arrangements of MNCs are positively and significantly associated with stock price crash risk after controlling for corporate tax avoidance and other known determinants of stock price crash risk in the regression model. This result is robust to alternative measures of stock price crash risk and income-shifting, and several endogeneity tests. The authors also observe that income-shifting arrangements increase stock price crash risk both directly and indirectly through the information opacity channel. Finally, in cross-sectional analyses, the authors find that the positive association between income-shifting and stock price crash risk is more pronounced for MNCs that use tax haven subsidiaries and have weak corporate governance mechanisms.
Originality/value
The authors provide new empirical evidence that MNCs will likely face significant capital market consequences regarding their income-shifting arrangements.
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Waliya Gwokyalya, Ibrahim Mike Okumu and Solomon Rukundo
This paper aims to analyse how the law on income taxation of small businesses in Uganda has evolved from the pre-colonial to the present day.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse how the law on income taxation of small businesses in Uganda has evolved from the pre-colonial to the present day.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used doctrinal legal research based on existing documentation on empirical research from Ugandan laws, institutional writings, books and journal articles.
Findings
The study established that there has been various promulgations and amendment of the law on income taxation of small businesses geared at simplifying the law, expanding the tax base and improving the tax yield from this sector. However, the law still bears limitations, some of which have existed from way back before the current legal regime on presumptive tax. Thus, the income tax yield from small businesses continues to be low over the years. It posits that it is not clear whether small business owners understand the legislations on presumptive income tax to enable us to determine with certainty that further amendments have the potential of enhancing an increased tax yield, which has not been attained over the years.
Originality/value
Limited work has been undertaken on the historical development of the income taxation of small businesses in a developing country like Uganda. This study provides an initial synthesis of the literature on the evolution of income tax laws for small businesses in an economy that had been earlier neglected by scholars.
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Brazil’s regional inequality is an important topic due to the large and persistent differences in development between states and the high levels of inequality in the country…
Abstract
Purpose
Brazil’s regional inequality is an important topic due to the large and persistent differences in development between states and the high levels of inequality in the country. These variations in development can potentially render survey data inaccurate since the significance of capital income varies across the states. Besides, previous studies incorporating tax and national accounts data globally have mainly focused on measuring the income distribution at the country-level. This approach can limit the understanding of inequality, especially when considering large countries such as Brazil.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used to construct these estimates follows the guidelines of the Distributional National Accounts, whose core goal is to provide income distribution measures consistent with macroeconomic aggregates and harmonized across countries and time. The procedure has three main steps: first, it corrects the survey’s underrepresentation of top incomes using tax data. Then, it accounts for national income items not included in the survey or tax data, such as imputed rents and undistributed profits. Finally, it ensures that all components match the national income.
Findings
Compared to survey-based estimations, the results reveal a new angle on the state-level inequality. This study indicates that Amazonas, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have a more concentrated income distribution. The top 1\% of earners in these states receives around 28\% of total pre-tax income, while the top 10\% receive nearly 60\%. On the other end, Amapá (AP), Acre (AC), Rondônia (RO) and Santa Catarina (SC) are the states where the income distribution is less concentrated. There were no significant changes in the income distribution across the states during the period analyzed.
Originality/value
This study combines survey, tax and national accounts data to construct new estimates of Brazil’s state-level income distribution from 2006 to 2019. Previous results only considered income captured in surveys, which usually misses a significant part of capital incomes. This limitation may bias comparisons as capital income has different importance across the states. The new estimates represent the income of top groups more accurately, account for the entire national income and enable to compare regional inequality levels consistently with other countries.
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To complete this case, students will need to access financial statements from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s webpage. The links are provided. Students will also need to…
Abstract
Research methodology
To complete this case, students will need to access financial statements from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s webpage. The links are provided. Students will also need to review the conceptual framework that is typically covered in Intermediate 1 to respond to question 5.
Case overview/synopsis
This case is based on the three financial statement restatements that Weatherford International Ltd. made over an approximately 18-month period. The restatements were due to a fraud committed by manipulating the income tax accrual in the financial statements. The manipulation used was to overstate the amount of income used to calculate the dividend exclusion and then use a relatively high tax rate to calculate the resulting tax benefit. The tax rate used for the fraud was substantially more than Weatherford’s effective tax rate (ETR), which was a prominent part of the company’s strategic growth plan. The tax senior with the external auditors who reviewed the entry made for the dividend exclusion captured the inconsistency with the comment that “This [the entry] deserves a huh?” The case is intended for students in Intermediate 2, where financial statement restatements and their effect on the company’s financial statements are typically covered. During the years covered in this case, Weatherford was also under investigation for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Weatherford’s FCPA violations included multiple instances of bribery, the inappropriate use of volume discounts, improper payments and kickbacks in the United Nation’s Oil for Food program. Weatherford received the eighth-largest fine in the history of FCPA violations (at that time) of $152m. Weatherford’s FCPA investigation expanded, and the company paid another $100m in fines for violations of sanctions law and export control law. This case focuses only on the fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements through the tax accrual and does not delve into the other investigations. However, the linkage between those investigations and the fraud in this case is Weatherford’s nonexistent internal controls.
Complexity academic level
This case was designed to be used in Intermediate 2 financial accounting classes to highlight financial statement restatements and review the conceptual framework and materiality. The students who used the case did not have difficulty with the tax aspect of the case. However, most of the students had taken one tax class previously or concurrently. If students have not had any exposure to tax, the instructor might want to walk students through the tax aspects of the case.
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Oscar Claveria and Petar Sorić
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjustment of government redistributive policies in Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries following changes in income inequality…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjustment of government redistributive policies in Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries following changes in income inequality over the period 1980–2021.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first modelled the time-varying dynamics between income inequality and redistribution and then used a non-linear framework to test for the existence of asymmetries and cointegration in their long-run relationship. The authors used two complementary measures of inequality – the share of total income accruing to top percentile income holders and the ratio of the share of total income accruing to top decile income holders divided by that accumulated by the bottom 50% – and computed redistribution as the difference between the two inequality indicators before and after taxes and transfers.
Findings
The authors found that the sign of the relationship between income inequality and redistribution is mostly positive and time-varying. Overall, the authors also found evidence that the impact of increases in inequality on redistributive measures is higher than that of decreases. Finally, the authors obtained a significant long-run relationship between both variables in all countries except Denmark and Spain. These results hold for both Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to account for the potential existence of non-linearities and to examine the asymmetries in the adjustment of redistributive policies to increases in income inequality using alternative income inequality metrics.
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Jana Janoušková and Šárka Sobotovičová
It is important to consider economic and political factors when designing the tax mix and setting the level of corporate taxation. Increasing corporate taxation can be seen as an…
Abstract
It is important to consider economic and political factors when designing the tax mix and setting the level of corporate taxation. Increasing corporate taxation can be seen as an inefficient way to raise revenue for the state, as it can have a negative impact on investment and the competitiveness of firms. However, lowering corporate taxation can encourage investment and job creation, but it can also be perceived as supporting large corporations. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate corporate taxation, its position in the tax mix and its potential impact on economic growth. The revenues of corporate income tax (CIT) have an increasing tendency even though the tax rate was reduced from 41% to 19%. Revenues are influenced by both legislative changes and economic cycles. The level of taxation is also influenced by deductions, which include asset depreciations, research and development expenses, or loss deductions. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to examine the correlation between the selected factors. A moderately strong positive correlation was found between GDP growth and CIT as a percentage of total taxes, as well as between GDP growth and CIT as a percentage of GDP.
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Jian Xie, Jiaxin Wang and Tianyi Lei
From the perspective of local government tax administration, the impact of geographic dispersion on the corporate tax burden is investigated in this paper.
Abstract
Purpose
From the perspective of local government tax administration, the impact of geographic dispersion on the corporate tax burden is investigated in this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
Using unbalanced panel data with a sample of listed companies from 2003 to 2020 in China, this paper focuses on the effect of geographic dispersion on corporate tax burden and the mechanisms.
Findings
It is found that corporate tax burden is positively related to geographic dispersion. It is also found that geographic dispersion affects the corporate tax burden by increasing the effort of local government tax administration. In addition, the relation between geographic dispersion and corporate tax burden is more pronounced for local SOEs prior to the implementation of Golden Tax Project III and in cases where local governments face stronger financial pressure to obtain revenue.
Originality/value
This study has important implications for the promotion of the coordinated development of the regional economy, as well as the legalization, modernization and informatization of tax administration.
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Wanyi Chen and Fanli Meng
Corporate digital transformation (CDT) has challenged traditional tax administration systems. This study examines the impact of CDT on tax avoidance behavior and tests whether tax…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate digital transformation (CDT) has challenged traditional tax administration systems. This study examines the impact of CDT on tax avoidance behavior and tests whether tax authorities can identify this behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data on listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2008 to 2020, this study applies the Heckman two-stage and cross-section models.
Findings
The results show that the higher the degree of CDT, the more aggressive the tax avoidance behavior. The CDT's impact on corporate tax avoidance is more significant under strong government tax efforts.
Originality/value
This study expands research on the economic consequences of CDT and the factors influencing corporate tax avoidance behavior. Moreover, it has important implications for governments to monitor tax avoidance behavior under the CDT, improve digital tax systems, and pay more attention to the tax administration of digital assets.
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This study aims to examine the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on tax revenue in 34 developed and developing countries from 2006 to 2020.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on tax revenue in 34 developed and developing countries from 2006 to 2020.
Design/methodology/approach
Feasible generalised least squares (FGLS), a dynamic panel of a two-step system generalised method of moments (GMM) system and a pool mean group (PMG) panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach were used to compare the developed and developing countries. Basic estimators were used as pre-estimators and diagnostic tests were used to increase robustness.
Findings
The FGLS, a two-step system of GMM, PMG–ARDL estimator’s results showed that there was a significant negative long and positive short-term in most countries relationship between FDI inflows and tax revenue in developed countries. This study concluded that attracting investments can improve the quality of institutions despite high tax rates, leading to low tax revenue. Meanwhile, there was a significant positive long and negative short-term relationship between FDI inflows and tax revenue in the developing countries. The developing countries sought to attract FDI that could be used to create job opportunities and transfer technology to simultaneously develop infrastructure and impose a tax policy that would achieve high tax revenue.
Originality/value
The present study sheds light on the effect of FDI on tax revenue and compares developed and developing countries through the design and implementation of policies to create jobs, transfer technology and attain economic growth in order to assure foreign investors that they would gain continuous high profits from their investments.
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Salma Chakroun and Anis Ben Amar
This paper aims to examine the influence of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on corporate tax avoidance (CTA). In addition, this study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the influence of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on corporate tax avoidance (CTA). In addition, this study aims to explore whether family ownership moderates the impact of IFRS adoption on CTA.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a sample of 1,856 firms from various countries around the world, covering the period between 2010 and 2022. To estimate the proposed econometric models, the authors applied both fixed and random effects regression methods.
Findings
The present findings show that IFRS adoption has a negative impact on CTA, as measured by the effective tax rate and book-tax differences. This negative impact is more pronounced in “common law” countries than in “civil law countries.” Additionally, the authors found that family ownership plays a moderating role by positively affecting the impact of IFRS adoption on CTA.
Practical implications
The findings have practical, regulatory and academic implications for fostering accountability and fairness in taxation. This study suggests that implementing IFRS reduces tax avoidance and emphasizes the need for firms to evaluate the implications of IFRS adoption on their tax-planning strategies. It highlights the importance of aligning financial reporting practices with international standards to enhance transparency and minimize tax avoidance opportunities. The differential impact of IFRS adoption between “common law” and “civil law” countries underscores the role of legal and regulatory frameworks. In addition, family ownership plays a significant role in shaping tax-planning strategies. From an academic perspective, this research provides a foundation for further exploration into the relationship between IFRS adoption and tax avoidance.
Originality/value
The existing literature has predominantly concentrated on examining the effect of IFRS adoption on CTA, and the empirical findings have been inconsistent. This study introduces a novel perspective by considering the moderating influence of family ownership in determining the impact of IFRS adoption on CTA.
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