Equity ownership structure and corporate tax aggressiveness: the Nigerian context

Abstract

Purpose- This study examines the effect of ownership structure on corporate tax aggressive activities of listed firms in Nigeria. Methodology- Data were extracted from the annual reports of 40 non-financial firms that made up the sample of the study from 2010 to 2014. The effects of ownership concentration and managerial ownership as independent variables on tax aggressiveness as the dependent variable were observed in S fixed effect model including those of the control variables. Findings-The study reveals that ownership concentration has a positive but insignificant effect on tax aggressiveness while the effect of managerial ownership was found to be significantly negative. Further results show that leverage is negatively related with tax aggressiveness while return on assets is positively related. Size has not significant relation with tax aggressiveness Conclusion-In the Nigeria context, only managerial ownership type of ownership structure determines how tax aggressive a firm is.