Fiscal Year-end Research Articles

The Choice of the Financial Year-End: Does It Matter? An International Evidence

This paper examines how specific firm characteristics (size, industry, audit fees and age) and firm performance influence the choice of financial year-end (December vs. non-December). The sample consists of companies from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to tackle issues with international diversity. Both domestic and international regulations for each country are addressed in developing expectations and conclusions. The results of the study show that December is generally becoming less and less ‘popular’ compared to a few years back. The results also revealed that December year-end firms tend to be larger and operate in certain types of industries with some industries preferring to close their books at certain dates, whether a December or a non-December month. As a result, financial-reporting comparability issues may arise if firms depart from the year-end chosen by most similar firms. It is also found that older firms tend to have December as their year-end, while relatively younger firms prefer a non-December year-end. Moreover, firms tend to prefer December as audit fees go up. Finally, firms with better performance are less likely to have December as their fiscal year-end. These findings show the importance of the topic and suggest conducting more research by academics and standard setters.

The enduring trauma: How officials' childhood famine experiences affect year-end spending surge

This study investigates the impact of government officials’ childhood famine experiences on year-end spending surges (YESS), a phenomenon where organizations rush to spend unspent funds at fiscal year-end. We propose that early-life famine trauma fosters fiscal conservatism, leading to underutilized budgets, but the “use it or lose it” rule forces spending by the fiscal deadline. Analyzing data from Chinese cities (2008–2018), we find that officials who experienced famine in childhood significantly increased YESS, reducing fiscal efficiency and hindering local economic development. The effect is most pronounced among those who experienced famine in early childhood and is amplified in financially autonomous cities governed by officials with extensive local networks. Additionally, the observed correlation between mild depression and famine trauma suggests psychological mechanisms underlying the persistent effects of early trauma on fiscal behavior.

Regulated public accessibility to municipalities’ financial reports and bond interest cost

PurposeIn this study, we examine regulated public accessibility to municipalities’ financial reports and bond interest cost. In particular, we examine whether there is information content in a component of a constrained filing period that is useful to municipal bond market participants. The component of a filing period that we focus on is the period of time between an audit report date and a regulated public accessibility date.Design/methodology/approachTo explore our research question, we collect a sample of observations from municipalities that: (1) are required to post annual/audit financial reports on a centralized state-level repository that includes a “transparent” date stamp on when reports are made publicly available and (2) have issued general obligation bonds. Our sample is limited to one observation per municipality. The sample period is 2006–2019. In terms of approach, we use an ordinary least square (OLS) regression model to empirically test whether the time period between municipalities’ audit report date and state-required repository filing date is associated with general obligation bond interest cost.FindingsWe find support for the idea that there is information content in a component of a constrained filing period. In particular, we hypothesize and find a positive association between the time period between an audit report date and a state filing date and general obligation bond interest cost. Seemingly, this component of time may provide something unique or not available in other components of a constrained filing period (e.g. the fiscal year-end date to the audit report date). In post hoc analyses, we also find that both components of the constrained filing period in our setting (i.e. the audit report date to state filing date and the fiscal year-end date to audit report date) need to be considered for either of the components to be significant. Moreover, although both components are necessary, the audit report date to state filing date component appears to have a slightly stronger association (in terms of statistical significance) with general obligation bond interest costs.Research limitations/implicationsTo our knowledge, Illinois is the only state that provides a date stamp on when municipalities’ financial information is made publicly available on a centralized repository. As such we focus on municipalities in Illinois. While this increases the internal validity of our research, it potentially limits generalizability across other states. Also, as a reflection of the sample constraint, the number of observations in our study is relatively small. As part of post hoc analyses, we take a closer look at our sample, model and variables used to test our hypothesis.Practical implicationsFor stakeholders, each component of a constrained filing period may provide unique information. For example, the time period between an audit report date and a regulated filing date may send a positive signal about the quality of financial management to investors. For regulators, requiring some sort of centralized public access to municipal financial reports that have transparent time constraints may help states provide stronger governance and help lower municipalities’ borrowing costs.Originality/valueWe use a novel approach (with the Illinois date stamp filing information) to examine our research question. Most prior research has often relied on an assumption that the time between fiscal year-end and the audit report date is the component of time that provides useful information to investors (e.g. Henke and Maher, 2016). In our setting, we explore and find that a component of a constrained filing time period (i.e. the date from an audit filing to a required public accessibility filing) may also provide impactful information to investors.

Fiscal Year-Ends and Financial Benefits: The Role of Prospective Measurement Dates in Tax Reform

ABSTRACT The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 dramatically reshaped the tax landscape for companies and reduced incentives for multinationals to leave foreign earnings abroad. We study a provision of the law that allowed some multinationals to take simple measures to reduce their tax burden more than other firms. The TCJA levied a tax on accumulated income held in foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms. The implementation of this tax left firms an avenue to protect shareholder wealth, as foreign income retained as “cash” was taxed at a higher rate (15.5 percent) than foreign income retained in other asset classes (8 percent). Measurement rules allowed some firms significantly more time to shift foreign cash holdings to “noncash” assets and lower their tax burden. Using staggered, firm-specific measurement dates, we find that fiscal year-end firms with more time to respond to the law reduced their cash levels more than other firms. JEL Classifications: E62; H21; H25.

경제 불확실성이 감사보고서의 발행을 지연시키는가?

[Purpose]This study examines the relationship between macro－uncertainty and audit report lag. Also, it analyzes whether this relationship manifests differentially when considering audit hours by rank and auditor characteristics. [Methodology]For analysis, we use a sample of listed firms for the period from 2014 to 2019. Audit report lag was proxied by the number of days from the fiscal year－end to the audit report date. Macro－uncertainty was measured using the volatility index VKOSPI provided by KRX. [Findings]The analysis yields the following results. Firstly, it confirms an increase in audit report lag under high uncertainty. This could be interpreted as auditors increasing audit efforts in response to a rise in audit workload under uncertainty. Secondly, the relation between uncertainty and audit report lag becomes more pronounced in subsamples where audit hours put into by junior and senior staff are high. Thirdly, the relationship between uncertainty and audit report is stronger for Big4 and industry specialist auditors. This could be interpreted as auditors with higher reputation risk or litigation risk allocating relatively more audit effort in response to increased audit risks under uncertainty. [Implications]Despite previous research indicating that uncertainty reduces audit fees and audit hours, this study’s results suggest that reduced audit fees or audit hours does not necessarily imply a decrease in audit effort. Our results provide insight to investors and auditors in providing evidence that increased audit report lag may be due to external environmental factors rather than an increase in firm－specific risk factors.

The ambiguous December

This study documents a seasonality in capital market ambiguity. It shows that ambiguity tends to increase along the calendar year. Moreover, December records an exceptionally high level of ambiguity. In half of the sample years, December exhibits the highest or the second-highest ambiguity among all months. This pattern is not found for the volatility index (VIX). The “December Ambiguity Effect” is robust to numerous tests and persists after controlling for macroeconomic parameters. A possible explanation for this effect is the obsoleteness of information disclosed at the beginning of the year by firms with December fiscal year-end.

부채특성이 경영권방어수단과 타인자본비용 간의 관계에 미치는 영향

Purpose - This study examines the effect of corporate debt characteristics on the relationship between anti-takeover provision and the cost of debt.
 Design/methodology/approach - The study analyzes a sample of non-financial firms listed on the stock market with December fiscal year-end from 2011 to 2018. Debt default risk (debt size, liquidity ratio, interest coverage ratio, loss occurrence) and the issuance of bonds are utilized as measures of corporate debt characteristics.
 Findings - First, it is observed that creditors of firms with anti-takeover provision demand higher returns as the debt default risk of these firms increases. Second, for firms issuing bonds, it is found that bondholders in companies with anti-takeover provision also seek higher returns.
 Research implications or Originality - This study contributes by demonstrating that the effect of anti-takeover provision on creditors can vary depending on corporate debt characteristics. Particularly, the study highlights the importance of a firm's debt default risk and creditor distinction (bondholders vs. regular creditors) as significant factors that may influence perceptions of anti-takeover provision.

Ending at the Wrong Time: The Financial Reporting Consequences of a Uniform Fiscal Year-End

ABSTRACTThere is an ongoing debate over uniformity versus flexibility in accounting regulation. This study examines the financial reporting consequences of a rigid accounting rule in China under which the fiscal year-end is uniform for all companies. Using extensive interviews together with large-sample archival analyses, we find that “mismatched” firms—those whose mandated financial reporting cycles are not aligned with their business cycles—exhibit higher levels of absolute abnormal accruals than their nonmismatched counterparts. Further analyses suggest that the negative association between mismatching and financial reporting quality is mainly driven by unintentional estimation errors rather than intentional earnings manipulation.Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.JEL Classifications: M41; M48; K22.

Carbon Management System Quality and Corporate Financial Performance

Synopsis The research problem This study examines the relationship between carbon management system quality and firm performance and investigates the mechanisms through which a carbon management system relates to firm performance. Motivation or theoretical reasoning Despite growing attention from academia and practice on carbon accounting in recent years, little is known about firms’ strategic implementation of carbon management systems and their impact on firms’ financial outcomes. Drawing on the resource-based view and institutional theory, this study argues that carbon management system implementation can create competitive advantages for firms through product differentiation and cost leadership. However, adopting quality management systems for carbon mitigation can be costly for firms. Additionally, not all firms would achieve such a differentiation advantage through a carbon management system. The test hypotheses H1: There is no relationship between the quality of a carbon management system and firm financial performance. H2: Carbon-intensive sectors have no moderating effect on the relationship between the quality of a carbon management system and firm financial performance. Target population Corporate managers and stakeholders including investors, international regulators, and standard settees. Adopted methodology Ordinary least square regressions. Analyses Corporate financial performance is measured by return on assets, calculated as earnings before extraordinary items divided by total assets at fiscal year-end. Our independent variable of interest is the quality measure of a carbon management system (QCMS). Following Tang and Luo ( 2014 ) and Luo and Tang ( 2016 ), QCMS is calculated as the average equal weighted sum of the standardized values from the 10 elements of a carbon management system. For additional tests, alternative performance measures (e.g., Tobin’s Q, return on equity, operating return on assets [ROA], and cash flow from operating activities to total assets) and disaggregated ROA components are employed as dependent variables. Findings We find that a firm’s carbon management system quality is positively associated with its financial performance. A better-quality carbon management system is especially associated with higher revenues, margins, and R&D expenditures. In addition, individual carbon management system components exhibit heterogeneous influences on financial performance. Specifically, the areas related to carbon disclosure and external carbon assurance have an incremental impact on financial performance. The positive association between a carbon management system and financial performance is stronger for firms operating in carbon-intensive sectors and firms with a higher level of carbon emissions. The carbon regulation affects the sensitivity of financial performance differently in intensive and non-intensive sectors in response to carbon management system quality.

The impact of accelerating 20-F filing

This study examines the impact of the SEC’s decision to accelerate the 20-F filing deadline from six to four months after the fiscal year-end for foreign private issuers (FPIs). We find that only large FPIs experience a significant positive market reaction around the accelerated 20-F filing date, and such acceleration is associated with an improved reporting environment. We also find that only large FPIs benefit from further acceleration of 20-F filing deadline from four to three months after the fiscal year-end. Additionally, any further acceleration of 20-F filing does not benefit all sizes of the FPIs. Our results contribute to the debate about whether it is beneficial for the FPIs to accelerate their 20-F filing deadline to align with the 10-K filing deadlines.

Corporate disclosure timing under IFRS: the case of emerging Georgia

Purpose This study aims to examine the timing of corporate disclosure in the context of Georgia, an emerging market where a recent reform of corporate financial transparency mandated about 80,000 private sector entities to publicly disclose their annual financial statements. Design/methodology/approach The main analysis covers more than 4,000 large, medium, small and micro private sector entities, for which the data is obtained from the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. This paper builds an empirical model of logit/probit regression, with industry fixed and random effects to investigate the drivers of the corporate disclosure timing. Findings Findings suggest that the mean reporting time lag is 279 days after the fiscal year-end, that is nine days after the statutory deadline. Almost one-third (30%) of the entities miss the nine-month statutory deadline, while the timely filers almost unexceptionally file immediately before the deadline. Multivariate tests reveal that voluntarily filing entities completed the process significantly faster than those mandated to do so; audited financial statements take more time to be filed, whereas those with unqualified audit opinion or audited by large/international audit firms are filed faster than their counterparts. The author concludes that despite the overall high filing rates, the timing of corporate disclosure is not (yet) efficiently enforced in practice (but is progressing over time), whereas regulatory incentives prevail over market incentives among the timely filers. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that explores corporate disclosure timing incentives in the context of Georgia. This study extends prior literature on the timing of financial information from an emerging country’s private sector perspective, with juxtaposed market and regulatory incentives.

Audit fees, audit seasonality and audit quality in Nigeria: a mediation analysis

PurposeThis study aims to examine the mediating role of audit seasonality on the association between audit fees and audit quality in Nigerian deposit money banks.Design/methodology/approachThe sample comprises 14 banks with annual financial statements between 2008 and 2020. The modified Baron and Kenny’s (1986) causal mediation model by Iacobucci et al. (2007) through the use of bootstrapped partial least square structural equation modelling and Sobel’s (1986)z-test is adopted to achieve this study’s objective.FindingsThe results of the causal mediation analysis show evidence of a fully mediating role of audit seasonality in the association between audit fees and audit quality in the Nigerian banking industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study extends the body of knowledge by demonstrating how audit fees influence audit quality through audit seasonality as a mediator in line with the job demands-and resources and conservation of resources theories. Regulatory authorities should be wary of policies that will further increase the workload of already burdened personnel of audit firms as the uniform fiscal year-end of 31 December introduced in the Nigerian banking system has unintended consequences on audit fees and audit quality.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide evidence on the indirect association between audit fees and audit quality.

Voluntary Disclosure of Carbon Emissions Information, Managerial Ability, and Credit Ratings

This paper examines the relationship between the voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions information and credit ratings, and whether managerial ability affects this association. I examine a sample of 7996 non-financial companies with fiscal year-end in December listed in the Korea Stock Exchange Market (KSE) for the period of 2011–2019. Using CDP reports to measure the voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions information, this study reports that, on average, credit ratings can be increased through the proactive disclosure activities of environmental problems in South Korea. Moreover, in companies managed by competent managers, the positive association between the voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions information and credit ratings is pronounced, implying that competent managers encourage the disclosure of qualitative information to assess the intrinsic corporate value. These results are robust even after analyses with different empirical models.

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Information uncertainty of fiscal year end quarter earnings

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether within the same firm, earnings risk is exacerbated in the fiscal year end (FYE) quarters relative to that of other quarters, more importantly, if this type of earnings risk is unique. Further, the authors discuss solutions to mitigate this type of information risk.Design/methodology/approachThis study provides evidence that the information risk associated with FYE quarter earnings cannot be explained by other identified risk factors. Solutions to mitigate this risk include strong corporate governance and a more streamlined financial reporting structure.FindingsThe paper shows that there is significantly lower earnings response coefficient for FYE quarters than for non-FYE quarters (1984–2015). Furthermore, strong corporate governance and a more streamlined financial reporting structure, either by firms willingly reducing the usage of extraordinary item reporting or by FASB codification changes such as FASB 145, can help mitigate this type of information uncertainty.Research limitations/implicationsThis study explains that the causes of the exacerbated information risk associated with FYE quarter earnings identified in prior literature, namely, the “integral explanation” and “manipulation explanation,” are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, the authors deem it futile to disentangle the two. Instead, the authors offer two possible solutions.

The association between internal control quality and audit report lag in the French setting: the moderating effect of family directors

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine the association between internal control quality (ICQ) and audit report lag (ARL) and to test whether family directors affect the relationship.Design/methodology/approachICQ is measured by using the framework developed by Michelon et al. (2015), while ARL is measured as the number of days from fiscal year-end to the date of the auditor's report.FindingsUsing a sample of 190 French companies over the period of 2016–2019, the authors document that ICQ is negatively associated with ARL, suggesting that ICQ represents a key determinant of audit delay. When testing for the moderating effect of family directors on this relationship, findings show that under high percentage of family directors on the board, this relationship becomes insignificant.Originality/valueThis paper extends previous research on audit delays by investigating the moderating effect of family directors on the relation between ICQ and ARL in the French setting. The empirical evidence highlights the adverse effect of the concentration of family directors on the board on timely disclosure as proxied by ARL.

Weathering the Weather: Does Extreme Weather Affect the Cost and Delay of an Audit?

We examine the impact of extreme weather events on the cost of an audit. We measure impact as the number of days per year a firm experiences an extreme weather event of any type (e.g., drought, floods, storms, wildfires) in its metropolitan statistical area (MSA). We first find that auditors charge significantly higher fees for firms exposed to more extreme weather days in the past, suggesting that auditors consider previous extreme weather risk exposure a material business risk. No one weather type dominates this finding. Second, auditors charge higher fees for firms experiencing abnormal increases in extreme weather days contemporaneously. This positive relation also strengthens for unanticipated weather events occurring after the fiscal yearend but before the audit report date. Third, we find that extreme weather events generate significantly higher audit fees when the auditor and the client locate in the same MSA.

Tax avoidance and audit report lag in South Africa: the moderating effect of auditor type

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the association between audit report lag (ARL) and tax avoidance and test whether external auditor type affects this relationship.Design/methodology/approachARL is measured as the number of days from fiscal year-end to the date of the auditor’s report, while tax avoidance is measured using effective tax rate.FindingsUsing a sample of 45 South African companies over the period of 2010–2013, the authors document that ARL is positively associated with tax avoidance and this relationship remains positive when the company is audited by a Big-4 audit firm and not significant when the company is audited by a non-Big-4.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings have important implications for auditors aiming to reduce audit risk as they may consider the impact of tax avoidance and pay more attention to companies with a high degree of tax avoidance.

Financial Reporting and Consumer Behavior

We show that financial reporting spurs consumer behavior. Using granular GPS data, we show that foot-traffic to firms’ commerce locations significantly increases in the days following their earnings announcements. Foot-traffic increases more for announcements with extreme earnings surprises, that correspond to firms’ fiscal year-ends, that occur outside of Fridays, and that elicit greater internet search volume, consistent with earnings announcements spurring consumer behavior by garnering attention. Consumer activity also rises with reductions in solvency risk among firms selling durable goods, consistent with consumers responding to information about firms’ longevity conveyed by their earnings. Using demographic information, we show financial reporting disproportionately affects foot-traffic in populations more likely to consume financial news. Collectively, these results suggest earnings announcements serve a marketing function by drawing attention to firms, and that a byproduct of the financial reporting process is that it shapes consumer behavior.

Measuring timeliness of annual reports filing by jump additive models

Foreign public issuers (FPIs) are required by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to file Form 20-F as comprehensive annual reports. In an effort to increase the usefulness of 20-Fs, the SEC recently enacted a regulation to accelerate the deadline of 20-F filing from six months to four months after the fiscal year-end. The rationale is that the shortened reporting lag would improve the informational relevance of 20-Fs. In this work we propose a jump additive model to evaluate the SEC’s rationale by investigating the relationship between the timeliness of 20-F filing and its decision usefulness using the market data. The proposed model extends the conventional additive models to allow possible discontinuities in the regression functions. We suggest a two-step jump-preserving estimation procedure and show that it is statistically consistent. By applying the procedure to the 20-F study, we find a moderate positive association between the magnitude of the market reaction and the filing timeliness when the acceleration is less than $17$ days. We also find that the market considers the filings significantly more informative when the acceleration is more than $18$ days and such reaction tapers off when the acceleration exceeds $40$ days.