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This paper aims to address the fundamentals of tax planning and seeks to focus on the opportunities and root causes for tax planning.

The paper reviews the current state of tax planning with case studies that reveal fundamental statutory structural opportunities.

While some, possibly many, tax advisers lack integrity and recommend tax structures to their clients that are inconsistent with reasonable interpretations of the tax law, most advisers, even very aggressive and creative advisers, probably do not. The paper suggests that it may be futile to seek to deter tax professionals from designing and marketing tax plans unless legislation makes tax advisers jointly responsible with their clients for their clients’ tax underpayments.

Short of such a radical approach, governments must commit first to altering the basic structure of their tax laws to make aggressive tax planning uninviting.

The paper offers original insights into the inseparability of the legislative process from the creation of unnecessary tax planning opportunities.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of combined assurance on tax avoidance in South Africa.

This study is founded on a sample of 76 South African firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange over the 2014–2022 period. The authors used the feasible generalized least squares regression estimation technique to test the hypothesis. To address endogeneity issues, this study conducted a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis based on propensity score matching.

The results reveal that combined assurance negatively impacts tax avoidance. Implementing combined assurance, as an integrated risk management approach, significantly minimizes tax risk. The DID analysis provides well-founded evidence attributing the decline in tax avoidance levels to the availability of combined assurance. The inferences are robust to using alternative measures of tax avoidance, testing combined assurance impact across various tax avoidance levels and controlling for the COVID-19 effect.

This study presents valuable insights for firms, managers and policymakers. The findings encourage companies to bolster their risk management practices, opting for combined assurance over a sole risk monitoring mechanism. This approach enables the company to ensure better compliance with tax regulations, thereby enhancing overall efficiency. Besides, the disciplining effect of combined assurance motivates managers to make informed decisions, avoid tax avoidance strategies and safeguard corporate reputation. Moreover, this research calls upon policymakers to promote effective global regulatory frameworks for combined assurance practices.

The research brings original insights by exploring the influence of combined assurance on tax avoidance. This addresses a gap in the current literature that has predominantly focused on the relationship between tax avoidance and individual lines of defense.

This study aims to investigate the role of negative media coverage of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in deterring tax avoidance. Inspired by media agenda-setting theory and legitimacy theory, this study hypothesises that an increase in ESG negative media coverage should cause a reputational drawback, leading companies to reduce tax avoidance to regain their legitimacy. Hence, this study examines a novel channel that links ESG and taxation.

This study uses panel regression analysis to examine the relationship between negative media coverage of ESG issues and tax avoidance among the largest European entities. This study considers different measures of tax avoidance and negative media coverage.

The results show that negative media coverage of ESG issues is negatively associated with tax avoidance, suggesting that media can act as an external monitor for corporate taxation.

The findings have implications for policymakers and regulators, which should consider tax transparency when dealing with ESG disclosure requirements. Tax disclosure should be integrated into ESG reporting.

The study has social implications related to the media, which act as watchdogs for firms’ irresponsible practices. According to this study’s findings, increased media pressure has the power to induce a better alignment between declared ESG policies and tax strategies.

This study contributes to the literature on the mechanisms that discourage tax avoidance and the literature on the relationship between ESG and taxation by shedding light on the role of media coverage.

The authors investigate the influence of CEOs’ Islamic religiosity on the level of tax aggressiveness within private family firms. In addition, this study aims to explore the moderating role of the CEO's ownership stake in the firm and the payment of Zakat.

The authors gathered data through surveys completed by 199 CEOs of Jordanian Islamic family firms. These survey results, along with financial statements, were used for multiple ordinary least squares regression analyses.

The results of this study reveal a negative relation between the extent of Islamic religiosity of the CEO and the level of tax aggressive behavior. Furthermore, the results suggest that an increase in the CEO’s ownership stake strengthens the negative association between the CEO’s religiosity and the extent of tax aggressive behavior. Finally, the CEO’s involvement in Zakat payments is shown to mitigate the negative association between the CEO’s religiosity and the extent of tax aggressive behavior.

In contrast to prior research that examines the relationship between religiosity and tax aggressiveness within the context of other religions, particularly Christianity, in listed firms, and primarily considers the religiosity of the overall firm environment, the study centers on the CEO’s religiosity in private Islamic family firms. The Islamic context further enables us to investigate whether the fulfillment of Zakat diminishes the moral obligation experienced by religious CEOs to fulfill their tax responsibilities.

This study aims to examine the association between related-party transactions (RPT) and tax avoidance. The study further investigates whether government ownership improves scrutiny of tax aggressiveness activities among Taiwanese group companies.

The authors used 16,061 firm-year observations derived from the Taiwan Economic Journal Database (TEJ) from 2005 to 2021. The authors applied GLS fixed-effect regression. Additional tests, such as a difference-in-difference examination, propensity score matching (PSM) analysis and other tests were performed to obtain more robust results.

The results show different consequences between eliminated and non-eliminated RPT toward tax avoidance. RPT enhances tax benefits aligned with the efficient contracting hypothesis. Under varying degrees of government control, this paper empirically reveals that government ownership has a role in mitigating tax avoidance. This implies that government control improves corporate governance by balancing opportunistic and efficiency-based tax avoidance.

This paper provides substantial practical implications since using the strategy of reducing taxes through RPT will result in greater tax savings at the business group level. Therefore, RPT is beneficial for enhancing business efficiency. Furthermore, government control increases corporate governance quality, which could lead to balancing tax aggressiveness activity.

Using a unique setting for RPT reporting in Taiwan, this paper divides RPT into eliminated and non-eliminated RPT. The findings offer significant insight for policymakers, investors and managers regarding the utilization of RPT to enhance efficiency in business groups. Additionally, this paper highlights the role of government control in preserving a harmonious balance in tax planning practices.

This paper aims to study the impact of tax avoidance on corporate risk. It also examines the moderating impact of tax risk on the relationship between tax avoidance and firm risk.

Based on available information in the DATASTREAM database about a sample of French firms listed in the CAC 40 from 2010 to 2022, the study uses the feasible generalized least squares method to investigate the impact of tax avoidance on firm risk and the moderating impact of tax risk. To check the robustness of our results, the authors changed the measurement of variables to identify potential biases and they significantly mitigated the endogeneity concerns using instrumental variable regression. Additional estimations were performed, first by using book-tax differences (BTD) and its components, i.e. temporary and permanent, and second by retesting hypotheses of years before the outbreak of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The results show that tax avoidance negatively affects the firm risk while tax risk has a positive effect on firm risk. More importantly, tax risk moderates the negative impact of tax avoidance on the firm risk. When tax avoidance is associated with a high level of tax risk, it leads to a high firm risk. Accordingly, tax avoidance should be considered in conjunction with tax risk when studying the effect put on the firm risk. Further analyses indicate that tax risk moderates the negative relationship between permanent BTD and firm risk.

The major limitation of this study is that it focuses only on French-listed firms, which make it difficult to generalize the results. Furthermore, the authors did not introduce governance variables into our models. An effective governance system and transparent information can reduce some of the perverse effects of risky tax avoidance by reducing the tax avoidance costs. The obtained results are of great interest to researchers who need to include the tax risk concept in their examination of the tax avoidance impacts.

The results are useful for investors wishing to make sound decisions regarding risky tax avoidance practices. Furthermore, the results may signal the need for French policymakers to make more efforts to reduce risky tax avoidance activities that are harmful to investors. They must enforce the existence and the reporting of a tax risk management strategy by firms.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the tax avoidance effects with a special focus on firm risk. This study provides the first French evidence of the role of tax risk in the relationship between tax avoidance and firm risk.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between a firm’s use of aggressive tax planning and board of directors (independence and size) and audit committee characteristics (independence and expertise).

This study used archival data from 35 non-financial firms’ French firms listed on the CAC 40 over a period of 5 years (2013–2018).

This study shows that measures of board size are negatively related to tax aggressiveness. A broader board helps reduce tax aggressiveness, as having more members can improve board performance. Indeed, more members can contribute to a better assessment of tax risks and detect risky tax strategies.

The main limitation of this study is the small sample. The authors limited the observations to 2018 because the corporate tax rate in France changed in 2019. Such a time window casts homogeneity on the current study. Examining universal registration documents, it has been noted that companies have only recently become interested in disclosure of tax risk.

Knowing the characteristics of the board and audit committees can give a signal to stakeholders about the potential risk bearing on aggressive tax planning. This study provides evidence that could help the board governance committees integrate the right profiles and to raise awareness among the members of the board of directors and the audit committee to play their role (monitoring function or advisory function) about tax risk management.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of the board of directors and audit committee characteristics on tax aggressiveness.

This study examines the effect of board characteristics on the tax aggressiveness of listed companies on the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka.

The sample consists of 264 firm-year observations of non-financial listed companies in Sri Lanka from 2014 to 2019. The dynamic panel system GMM technique was used to test the hypotheses, and further analyses were performed using the propensity score matching technique.

All four effective tax rate measures' mean values were lower than the statutory tax rate, indicating the likelihood of tax planning. Whether board attributes are likely to mitigate tax aggressiveness is uncertain because the results are inconsistent and depend on the ETR measure. Similarly, the logistic regression results derived using the PSM approach are inconsistent, suggesting that board characteristics may have a limited effect on tax aggressiveness. Hence, the corporate governance-tax aggressiveness nexus is limited in the case of Sri Lanka.

This investigation is limited to non-financial listed companies in Sri Lanka and incorporates only four tax aggressiveness measures. Findings are imperative for policymakers, regulators, and professional bodies to improve corporate governance codes and rules to enhance organisational transparency toward corporate tax payments.

Aggressive tax planning by companies will reduce government tax revenue, hinder social progress, and cause public mistrust of large corporations and institutions.

This study provides insight into the nexus between corporate governance and tax aggressiveness in a middle-income economy in South Asia hit by an economic crisis where tax revenue has fallen and tax enforcement is weak.

Because of growing corporate tax scandals, there is an enhanced focus on corporate taxation by governments, institutions and the general public. Transparency in tax matters has been identified as critical for effectively managing and promoting socially responsible tax behaviour. This study aims to explore the impact of ownership structure, board and audit committee characteristics on corporate tax responsibility (CTR) disclosure.

This research collected data from the annual reports of Pakistani-listed firms over 12 years, from 2009 to 2020. Consequently, the data set encompasses a total of 1,800 firm-year observations. This study uses regression analysis to test the relationship between corporate governance and CTR disclosure.

The results show that board gender diversity, managerial ownership and audit committee independence promote tax responsibility disclosure. In contrast, family board membership, CEO duality, foreign ownership and family ownership negatively impact tax responsibility disclosure. Additional analyses reveal the specific information categories that produce the overall effects on tax responsibility disclosure and assess the moderating impact of family firms on the governance and CTR disclosure nexus.

Corporations can use the results to encourage practices that enhance transparency and improve the quality of disclosures. Regulatory authorities can use the findings to stipulate better protocols. Doing so will be vital for developing countries such as Pakistan to improve tax revenue and cultivate economic growth.

While this research represents, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, one of the first empirical investigations of the association between corporate governance and CTR, the results contribute to the corporate governance literature and offer fresh insights into CTR, an emerging dimension of corporate social responsibility.

This study aims to examine whether tax avoidance is associated with overinvestment and the moderating role of financial reporting quality on such association in Italian private firms.

This study uses a multivariate regression analysis based on a sample consisting of 65,535 firm-year observations between 2015 and 2022.

Results show that tax avoidance is positively associated with overinvestment and that such relation is weaker for firms with a higher financial reporting quality than for firms with a lower financial reporting quality. Furthermore, findings hold to a wide range of robustness checks, including alternative measures of main variables, endogeneity and falsification tests.

Since this study focuses on the Italian private firms, the results cannot be extensively generalized.

As this study highlights the importance of tax avoidance on overinvestment, it can be particularly beneficial for managers, policymakers and other parties interested in assessing factors that lead to a capital allocation in less efficient investments.

This study provides novel evidence about the role of tax avoidance on overinvestment in private firms by mitigating the little attention of prior research in this area. It examines the Italian setting that is particularly of interest given the relevance of private firms in such context and the incentives of managers to reduce the tax burden.