Tax-induced Earnings Management Research Articles

Corporate Income Tax Changes in the Context of Earnings Management: a Review of the Literature

The purpose of the article/hypothesis: This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature regarding tax-induced earnings management. In particular, the association between anticipated tax changes and earnings management is of interest to the authors.
 Methodology: This paper uses a systematic literature review to achieve its research objectives.
 Results of the research: The presented research is mostly devoted to tax rate decreases and focuses on accrual-based earnings management methods. In anticipation of a tax rate change, companies shift their income from a high to a low tax rate period. Moreover, the probability of tax-induced earnings management is higher in case of extreme changes in the tax rate, larger prospects for tax savings as well as in case of private firms. This paper identifies several inconsistencies and gaps in the current literature, emphasizing that the connection between firms’ characteristics, the level of book-tax conformity and the practice of earnings management remains unclear.

Causal effects of corporate taxes on private firms' earnings management: a regression discontinuity analysis

PurposeThe authors emphasize the information role of earnings management and how it may be used to “mislead some stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of the company or to influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers.” Specifically, the authors examine the causal effect of tax incentives on private firms' earnings management based on a corporate tax reform in China.Design/methodology/approachIn December 2001, China implemented a tax collection reform which moved the collection of corporate income taxes from the local tax bureau to the state tax bureau. This reform results in exogenous variations in the effective tax rate among similar firms established before and after 2002. The authors apply a regression discontinuity design and use the generated variation in the effective tax rate to investigate the impact of taxes on firm earnings management.FindingsThe authors find that tax reduction substantially increases private firms' incentives to manage earnings information, and such effect is particularly pronounced when tax collection intensity and government interventions are low. Further evidence shows that lower tax rates stimulate firms' investment, inventory turnover and recruitment of skilled human capital. A plausible mechanism is that private firms signal a promising outlook by managing earnings to attain greater financing and improve investment/operation levels when financial constraints are removed.Originality/valueFirst, the authors present the causal effects of tax incentives on private firm's earnings management, which deepens the authors’ understanding on the determinants of firm's earnings information production. Second, this study also contributes to the literature on tax-induced earnings management. Third, the authors believe that this topic offers clear policy implications and would be of particular interest to regulators.

Tax-Induced Earnings Management and Book-Tax Conformity: International Evidence from Unconsolidated Accounts

We examine an international panel of firms to quantify the degree of conforming tax avoidance associated with changes to statutory tax rates and how book-tax conformity alters this type of earnings management. Methodologically, we derive an estimation method that identifies conforming tax avoidance from the cross-border profit shifting literature. Using this approach in an international setting, we find robust evidence of substantial conforming tax avoidance in response to changing statutory tax rates and identify circumstances where this response is stronger. Specifically, the results suggest that a 10 percentage point decrease in the corporate tax rate relates to an 8.2 percent inflation of pre-tax book income, which is more pronounced (smaller) in private (public) firms. Further, this response is stronger when a country switches from having a low to high degree of conformity between its book and tax reporting, highlighting the role of book-tax conformity for a firm’s tax planning strategies.

Earnings Management in Response to Corporate Tax Rate Reduction Under an Imputation Tax System

Our study explores how firms respond to a tax rate reduction under an imputation tax system. By exploring Taiwanese data, we find that firms engage in significant downward earnings management preceding a tax rate reduction, and this earnings management behavior reverses in the following year. We further explore what factors drive this finding, given that corporate tax avoidance reduces shareholder imputation credits and thus generates limited tax benefits to most shareholders. We argue and find evidence that three factors explain the tax-induced earnings management: (1) financing benefits from tax savings, (2) managerial rent extraction, and (3) the influence of foreign and domestic institutional shareholders. Our results suggest that factors other than shareholder tax benefits have significant effects on corporate tax avoidance, suggesting that firms still have strong incentives to avoid taxes under an imputation tax system.

Cost behavior around corporate tax rate cuts

In this study, we investigate cost behavior of companies in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries before corporate tax rate cuts become effective. We consider such events to generate strong incentives for intertemporal cost shifting. We analyze the time period between 2011 and 2016, which includes 32 tax reductions. The results show that companies exhibit income-decreasing selling, general, and administrative cost behavior before tax rate cuts, and that the extent is proportional to the magnitude of the decrease in the tax rate. Furthermore, we find stronger evidence of this form of tax-induced earnings management in lower tax compliance and code law countries, as well as for private companies.

A review of earnings management in private firms in response to tax rate changes

Abstract In this paper, I present a review of tax accounting research with a specific focus on earnings management in response to changes in the corporate tax rate. While prior surveys of the tax accounting literature have a broad scope and focus primarily on publicly listed firms, I concentrate on studies examining private firms. These firms have stronger incentives to engage in tax-induced earnings management and recent evidence shows that firms in general defer earnings from high to low tax periods around tax reforms. I summarize contemporary studies, questions examined, and learnings. In addition, I discuss practical implications and outline future research possibilities.

Tax-induced fiscal year extension and earnings management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine three different responses to the Finnish 2005 tax reform that, among other things, reduced the corporate tax rate and hiked dividend taxation. Focus lies on the factors influencing the decision to change the fiscal year-end and whether earnings management is more prevalent when the decision is not taken.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the financial statement data of Finnish private firms and studies 350 fiscal year-end changing firms and 700 non-changing firms with logistic and linear regression analysis. Discretionary accruals are the proxy for earnings management.FindingsThe results suggest that firms seize the window of opportunity and extend fiscal years depending on the magnitude of the expected tax savings. Firms that do not change their fiscal year-end engage in more tax-induced earnings management. In terms of economic consequences, the earnings management approach is less economically significant.Research limitations/implicationsThis study only examines a limited number of firms that change their fiscal year-end, hence, care has been exercised in generalising the findings.Practical implicationsThe findings may be considered when structuring future tax reforms, particularly when considering transition rules relating to changes in fiscal year-ends. The study may also have implications beyond tax reforms since the evidence of opportunistic changes in the fiscal year-end can be informative for tax authorities, independent auditors and creditors.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the relatively scarce literature on private firm responses to tax policy changes by analysing both upward and downward earnings management, as well as changes in the fiscal year-end. This is in contrast to previous research that mainly focusses on listed firms and absolute earnings management or earnings management in one direction.

Tax-Induced Earnings Management within a Dividend Imputation System

This study examines whether, under a full dividend imputation system, companies defer income until tax changes beneficial to shareholders take effect. Using a sample of Australian listed companies, we find that companies manage earnings downwards via discretionary current accruals in the year preceding a reduction in personal income tax rates, and in the year preceding a change in the tax status of superannuation funds, which reverse the first year both changes operate in unison. We also examine whether such earnings management is a function of a company’s ownership structure and dividend payout policy. We find a company’s earnings management varies according to the proportion of shares held by superannuation funds, consistent with superannuation funds, as an investor-type, benefiting most from income deferral. We also find income deferral is more likely for dividend-paying firms, consistent with the deferral of dividends and the deferral of income being alternative ways to exploit shareholder-level tax changes to enhance shareholder wealth. Our results are informative of the likely behavior of companies should recent recommendations for reduced personal tax rates be implemented.

Political connections and tax-induced earnings management: evidence from China

We use the occasion of a change in tax policy that raised the tax rate for many of the listed companies in China to examine tax-induced earnings management (TEM) from the perspective of political connections. We find that when the tax rate increased, only those affected firms with politically connected management engaged in TEM. This suggests that, in addition to motivation for managing earnings, capability of influencing tax authorities is also an important determinant of TEM. We also find that TEM helped the firms with politically connected management to reduce their tax burden.

The effects of book-tax conformity and tax accounting incentives on financial accounting: evidence from public and private limited companies in Germany

Using as a natural experiment, the German corporate tax rate decrease in 2001, this paper studies the effect of tax accounting incentives on financial statements in a setting where book-tax conformity is strong. We find that companies that generally balance their overall accounting strategy, i.e., they focus on tax accounting and financial accounting concurrently, are less willing to engage in tax-induced earnings management than are companies that do not focus on accounting strategy balancing. Moreover, we observe that tax accounting incentives in our natural experiment influence the earnings management behaviour of private companies but not of public companies. Our findings highlight the impact of tax accounting incentives on financial accounting when book-tax conformity is strong; therefore, these findings offer a new starting point for a sound discussion on the future of book-tax conformity.

Tax-Induced Earnings Management in Emerging Markets: Evidence from China

ABSTRACTChina issued the New Enterprise Income Tax Law in 2007, which changed the corporate income tax rate from 33 percent to 25 percent and came into effect in 2008. Using the simulated marginal tax rate as an indicator of firms' earnings management incentives, and discretionary current accruals as a proxy for earnings management, we find significant tax-induced earnings management in 2007. However, the downward earnings management becomes less obvious for firms that have a greater percentage of shares owned by state-owned enterprises, have an audit committee on the board, and disclose certified internal control reports.Data Availability: All data are available from the second author (contact author) upon request.

An analysis of capital gains tax-induced earnings management

Since 1974, there have been four changes in the corporate tax rate on net capital gains. In each instance a firm had an incentive to alter its capital gains taking in order to maximize its after-tax cash flows. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of firms' responses to the four rate changes and in doing so provides additional evidence regarding tax-induced earnings management. Most studies analyze firms' responses to tax law change in one tax act (e.g., The Tax Reform Act of 1986), yet firm response to one act might not be the typical response. Results from this study confirm such a phenomenon. The results also provide additional evidence on the association of firm characteristics with tax-induced earnings management.

Tax-Induced Earnings Management by Firms with Net Operating Losses

This paper investigates tax-induced intertemporal income shifting by firms with net operating loss (NOL) carrybacks. For several years following the tax rate reductions of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA 86) these firms had incentives to shift recognition of revenues and expenses across years to increase their NOL carrybacks. By examining how NOL firms shift income and cross-sectional variation in the extent to which they do so, this research extends prior examinations of intertemporal income shifting by profitable firms (see Scholes, Wilson, and Wolfson [1992] and Guenther [1994]).1

Politicians, Interest Groups, and Regulators: A Multiple-Principals Agency Theory of Regulation, or "Let Them Be Bribed"

Politicians, Interest Groups, and Regulators: A Multiple-Principals Agency Theory of Regulation, or "Let Them Be Bribed"