Corporate Tax Avoidance, Free Cash Flow and Real Earnings Management: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

Financial statements are supposed to convey comprehensive information about firms' financial position, performance and changes in financial positions to assist a wide range of users in making economic decisions. Audited financial statements provide independent assurance that the information presented by management about the company's financial performance and positions are true and fair. However, even with audited financial statements, there is no guarantee of zero risk of financial statements manipulation. The art of manipulating the reported earnings to achieve pre-set objectives is termed as earnings management and it can be categorized into real or accrual earnings manipulations. This study extends existing research on the real earnings management by examining the effects of corporate tax avoidance and free cash flow on real earnings management in Nigeria. The analyses involve a sample of 72 non-financial firms with 360 firm-year observations for a five-year period (2014-2018). Data was obtained from the annual reports of these companies as well as from Thompson Reuters and Bloomberg databases. Multiple regression technique was used to test the model studied. The results show that both corporate tax avoidance and free cash flow increase management's real earnings manipulation activities. The study can benefit policymakers, shareholders, and regulators on the importance of effective internal control mechanisms to help curtail real earnings manipulations and improve the quality of reported financial statements.