Abstract

The purpose of this article is to research how companies optimize income tax with the ambition to maintain the achieved sales and profits at the highest possible level. Its purpose is to find out whether companies in Slovakia compensate for higher tax liability by tax loss amortization to reduce their income tax payable. Based on the review of literature from the field of legislation concerning the tax loss amortization by using the descriptive statistics of selected corporate and tax indicators, the companies are monitored in order to capture their behavior in paying income tax. The methods of deduction and synthesis are used in this article. The observed corporate and tax indicators are focusing on the relationship between the tax liability arising from corporate income tax, amortized tax losses, and the amount of tax payable in Slovakia in the period from 2015 to 2018. Tax loss can be considered as a tool for tax optimization, which is used by companies in all countries of the European Union, while the scope of its applicability is often limited by a time horizon. The amortization of tax losses has an impact on the amount of tax levied and the subsequent income tax payable, while the possibility to use this tool of tax optimization is influenced by the changing legislation in the period under review.

Highlights

  • It is possible to consider the occurrence of a tax loss as an unreasonable and unconsidered decision making of a business entity, but in many cases, the tax loss is caused intentionally as a business management activity

  • The first part of the analysis shows the situation of companies operating in Slovakia, structured by the volume of their income tax payable

  • To assess the use of tax optimization in the form of tax loss amortization, the theoretical part deals with the explanation of tax loss amortization in Slovakia and in the V4 countries and describes the situation in selected member states of the European Union

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Summary

Introduction

It is possible to consider the occurrence of a tax loss as an unreasonable and unconsidered decision making of a business entity, but in many cases, the tax loss is caused intentionally as a business management activity. There is a little literature which deals with the relationship between the country’s tax legislation and corporate finance, their profits and the amount of their taxation. Tax losses increased in the observed period due to a decrease in average rates of return and not due to an increase in the difference between taxable income and the measures applied to stimulate economic benefits. They did not confirm the impact of the existence of the possibility of claiming tax losses on the profitability of companies. A negative relationship was observed by Booth et al (2001)

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