Incremental Value Relevance of Unrecognized Deferred Taxes: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Abstract

We examine empirically whether the use of the partial method for deferred taxes provides incremental information of use to investors. Specifically, we test whether U.K. capital markets valued unrecognized deferred tax amounts reported in the footnotes to U.K. annual reports, pursuant to U.K. Statement of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAP) 15. Our empirical model is based on Feltham and Ohlson (1995). We run iterative weighted least squares (IWLS) regression of year-end share prices on a decomposition of book value per share for a pooled sample of U.K. firm-years drawn from the years 1993 through 1998, and find positive associations with price for net deferred tax assets - both recognized and unrecognized. Moreover, we are unable to reject the null hypothesis that both parts of deferred taxes have similar multiples in our price regressions. These findings support some theoretical predictions in Sansing (1998), Guenther and Sansing (2000, 2004), and Amir et al. (2001).