Long-term tax strategy and corporate acquisition payment structure: An analysis based on the book-tax tradeoff theory

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between corporate acquirers’ long-term tax strategy (i.e., past behavior) and their subsequent choice of an acquisition payment method (i.e., future behavior) based on a book-tax tradeoff analysis. We find that acquirers with a high (low) level of long-term tax avoidance are more likely to have cash (stock)-financed acquisitions. Political influence attenuates the significance of the above relationship. Among the acquirers who use cash-financed payment method, those who are less tax aggressive tend to include debt to finance their acquisitions suggesting that debt and non-debt tax shields are substitutes for each other in acquisitions.