Tax Loss Carryforward Research Articles

Tax Loss Carryforward Disclosure

AbstractThis study examines firms’ voluntary disclosure of tax loss carryforward (TLCF) information. We measure the content and presentation of TLCF information by a disclosure score based on hand collected data from annual reports. Our identification strategy employs new proprietary data to control for overall reporting quality. We argue and find that uncertainty about the usability of TLCF is a key driver of voluntary TLCF disclosure. The disclosure score is on average 3.86 points higher for firms with a strong loss history vis-à-vis firms without such a loss history. This positive association is economically meaningful, since the sample mean for the disclosure score is 8.88 (median 7.5). We also find that the content and type of disclosure vary systematically with the signal of uncertainty. In instances of historic uncertainty, firms exhibit increased reporting on the reasons and mechanisms behind changes in TLCF. Conversely, in the case of future uncertainty, they increase disclosure related to valuation allowance information. Our study provides detailed and unique insights into TLCF disclosure, suggesting that managers enrich the information environment with voluntary disclosure that caters to expected investors’ needs.

Tax Loss Carryforwards and Firm Investments

ABSTRACT The asymmetric tax treatment of gains versus losses can lead to the creation of a tax loss carryforward (TLCF) in case of prior-period losses. TLCFs shield future income from taxation and can therefore be relevant for investment decisions. The relevance of this tax shield is underlined by the substantial amounts of TLCFs carried forward by U.S. corporations. Despite the theoretically expected positive relation, empirical research on TLCFs and firm-level investments is scarce. We first investigate the TLCF investment relation using simulation analyses and differentiate capital expenditure from R&D expenditure. Our empirical results confirm the positive TLCF investment relation, especially when firms have sufficient financial resources and investment opportunities. Also, the TLCF incentive works differently for capital expenditures compared with R&D. Additional simulation results illustrate how the recent legal changes in carryforward and backward rules affect the investment-enhancing effect of TLCFs and show that it is expected to remain qualitatively comparable. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: H25; H32; M41.

Opterećenje porezom na dobitak u multinacionalnim osiguravajućim grupama - slučaj Hrvatske, Srbije i Slovenije

The corporate income tax burden may be an important factor in investment decision-making. Multinational companies pay close attention to the analysis of corporate income tax burden in the countries where they operate and plan to invest. On the other hand, the corporate income tax burden may significantly vary across countries due to different statutory rates and rules for calculating taxable income. The corporate income tax burden in subsidiaries of multinational insurance groups in Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia is analyzed in this paper. It is shown that the corporate income tax burden in insurance companies significantly differs between studied countries. Insurance companies in Serbia have by far the lowest tax burden, notably owing to tax loss carryforward and interest on government securities that are exempt from taxation. Although Slovenia has the highest statutory tax rate, insurance companies in Croatia have the highest average corporate effective tax rates. Many interest groups, particularly owners and managers of multinational insurance groups, may find the research findings interesting.

Maximizing financial benefits of investment tax allowances in renewable energy portfolios

ABSTRACT Policy makers offer fiscal incentives to encourage companies to invest in renewable technologies. This work considers generation companies that take advantage of fiscal incentives to minimize income tax. Thus, a novel mixed-integer linear optimization model that minimizes total tax payments of a company owning a portfolio of energy projects is designed. The model strategically manages depreciation, tax loss carryforward, and tax incentive use for minimizing discounted income tax. A set of revenue scenarios was employed to analyze model results. The proposed model yields tax savings between 8.2% and 19.2% of the company’s taxes. Tax savings are significantly larger for companies with a large generation portfolio; which represents a clear advantage over small generation companies. The proposed model can also be employed by policy makers to adjust future ITA policies by taking advantage of the anticipative knowledge of the optimal tax strategies implemented by generation companies.

Estimating and Imputing Missing Tax Loss Carryforward Data to Reduce Measurement Error

The ability to reduce current and future taxable income with prior years' taxable losses is highly relevant for explaining firms' effective tax rates. Compustat data on the tax loss carryforward (TLCF) are, however, often missing. We propose a method to estimate values for the missing TLCF data instead of the common practice in the literature of imputing zero values. In order to assess the accuracy of our method, we compare our estimated TLCFs with both a random selection of 10-K data and Compustat data for firm-years where Compustat data is available. The results show that our estimated values align very closely with the reported data. We re-analyze two existing studies using these estimated values. With the first, we show that imputing our estimated values instead of zeros leads to a large decrease in measurement error. This reduces the risk that firms with missing data and low effective tax rates are incorrectly classified as tax aggressive. The second re-analysis shows that using our estimated TLCFs leads to economically and statistically different conclusions compared to imputing zeros. Using our estimated values thus increases the probability of correct inferences in studies that use Compustat TLCF data. The estimated values are available from https://doi.org/10.34894/N9J1WE.

Tax loss carryforwards: Fiscal implications for regional budgets

Importance. This article deals with the implications for regional budgets arising from the introduction of tax incentives in terms of damaging the regional budget and attracting investments in the region's economy. Objectives. The article aims to analyze the consequences of applying a benefit of tax loss carryforward for tax revenues of regional budgets. Methods For the study, I used econometric methods and statistics data of 2016. Results. The article presents the results of analysis of fiscal costs for the regions due to tax loss carryforward and shows the calculation results of the impact of the benefit on investment and regional budgets for two scenarios of fiscal policy. Conclusions. The analysis of the two fiscal policy scenarios for regional budgets shows that introducing a restriction on the benefit in the first case would result in economy of the budget, and in the second case, it would result in the losses from the decrease of investment activity.

An Estimation Method for Missing Tax Loss Carryforward Data to Reduce Measurement Error

The ability to reduce current and future taxable income with prior years’ taxable losses is highly relevant for explaining firms’ effective tax rates. Compustat data on the tax loss carryforward (TLCF) are, however, often missing. We propose a method to estimate values for the missing TLCF data instead of the common practice in the literature of imputing zero values. In order to assess the accuracy of our method, we compare our estimated TLCFs with (i) a random selection of 10-K data and (ii) Compustat data for firm-years where Compustat data is available. The results show that our estimated values align very closely with the reported data. Re-analyzing Frank et al. (2009) shows that imputing our estimated values instead of zeros leads to a large decrease in measurement error. This reduces the risk that firms with missing data and low effective tax rates are incorrectly classified as tax aggressive. Consistent with this, a re-analysis of Dyreng et al. (2017) shows that using our estimated TLCFs leads to economically and statistically different conclusions compared to imputing zeros. Using our estimated values thus increases the probability of correct inferences in studies that use Compustat TLCF data. The estimated values are available from https://doi.org/10.34894/N9J1WE.

Tax Loss Carryforward Disclosure and Uncertainty

We examine whether companies voluntarily disclose additional information about tax loss carryforwards when the recoverability is more uncertain. With this study, we aim to explain part of the huge cross-sectional variation in the tax footnote. To assess disclosure behavior, we hand-collect data from notes of large German firms’ IFRS financial statements and identify voluntarily disclosed information. First, our results support prior literature’s evidence of a considerable cross-sectional variation of disclosure in the tax footnote. Second, we find that uncertainty about the usability of tax losses has a significantly positive relation to the amount and quality of disclosure, controlling for other disclosure determinants derived from prior literature and for sample selection. Third, our results indicate that the observed disclosure behavior is not simply a reflection of the firm’s general disclosure behavior but specific to the tax footnote. These findings are robust to several historic and forward-looking indicators representing uncertainty. Our findings suggest that managers anticipate the investors’ need for more private information and disclose them voluntarily to reduce information asymmetries. This result indicates that part of the cross-sectional variation in the tax footnote can be explained by firms anticipating investors’ demand for additional information.

Tax-Loss Carry Forwards and Returns

Tax loss carry forward (TLCF), the accumulated corporate losses that can be applied to future or past taxable income, form an important asset in the corporate portfolio. In our sample (1964 - 2014) TCLF was on average equal to 17% of pretax income with considerable cross sectional variation. We show that a firm’s TLCF is a complex contingent claim that has a significant non monotonic affect on the cash flow risk of assets in place. Consistent with this theoretical finding we show that TLCFs are highly significant in forecasting returns, volatility and market betas, even when a large number of controls are accounted for.

Compensación fiscal de pérdidas: Determinantes de su activación, impacto en las cuentas anuales y aprovechamiento de los créditos

Among companies incurring tax losses, there may be an incentive to recognize tax credits arising from those, as it results in a decrease in earnings and leverage ratios. Results from our empirical analysis indicate that the decision to recognize tax assets is driven by its positive impact on leverage and by size, and limited by both, the actual possibility to compensate the tax loss carry-forward with future positive earnings and, the risk of failure of the company; thus, management's expectations on future earnings seem to have no impact on the firm's choice. Moreover, we have documented that a small amount of the tax loss carry-forwards is actually applied to compensate future profits (less than 31% of the applicable amount within the five years subsequent to the loss), although the amount is significantly greater (80%) among companies whose tax losses were obtained as a result of negative extraordinary components of earnings. Finally, our findings reveal that accounting standard setters were right when they restricted the recognition of tax credits to those situations in which tax losses arise as a consequence of non-recurring events.

The Valuation of Tax Loss Carryforwards

This article shows that future tax savings from a tax loss carryforward equal a portfolio of options based on the taxable base. Unfortunately, the assumption of a geometric Brownian motion is not applicable for the taxable base, since it implies that a positive taxable base, for example, will never become negative and vice versa. Therefore, the famous Black and Scholes formula cannot be used for valuing this portfolio of options. In order to solve this problem, we assume an arithmetic Brownian motion for the taxable base and derive a formula for valuing tax loss carryforwards within a single-period model. In a multiperiod context, a Monte-Carlo simulation based on our findings provides reasonable results. This methodology can also be used to value the tax shields arising from debt if the interest expenses cannot be used in full during the period in which they occur. Our simulation suggests that the assumption that interest expenses are immediately deductable will yield inadequate company values.

Do windfall non‐debt tax shields from acquisitions affect corporate debt issues?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify possible tax synergies from acquisitions when the acquiring firm gains a non‐debt tax shield (NDTS) not directly associated with its own past performance, or a windfall NDTS. One possible benefit of a windfall NDTS is reduced reliance on interest tax shields to lower the firm's marginal tax rate (MTR).Design/methodology/approachThis paper tests the likelihood of issuing debt following acquisitions of windfall non‐debt tax attributes with logistic regressions. Both acquirers and targets are publicly held US firms. Acquisitions are completed from 1987 to 2003, and debt issues are observed following the deal. Target firm tax attributes are defined as the total tax spread, tax loss carryforward (TLCF), and the MTR.FindingsTarget firm tax spread and TLCFs are inconsequential to the acquirer's likelihood of issuing future debt, suggesting that tax synergies are relatively unimportant motives for acquisitions. As predicted, the target firm MTR is not significant to acquirer debt issues.Originality/valueThis paper makes several contributions. First, the notion of tax synergies from acquisitions is unresolved. This paper continues the search for tax synergies in acquisitions by examining the importance of acquired NDTS in the post‐acquisition period. Second, this paper examines the influence of NDTS on debt issuance in a post‐event framework. Third, this paper provides additional evidence that corporate managers have leverage targets.

The Valuation of Tax Loss Carryforwards

This paper shows that future tax savings from a tax loss carryforward equal a portfolio of options based on the taxable base. Unfortunately, the assumption of a geometric Brownian motion is not applicable for the taxable base since it implies that a positive taxable base, for example, will never become negative and vice versa. Therefore, the famous Black/Scholes formula cannot be used for valuing this portfolio of options. In order to solve this problem, we assume an arithmetic Brownian motion for the taxable base and derive a formula for valuing tax loss carryforwards within a single-period model. In a multiperiod context, a Monte-Carlo simulation based on our findings provides reasonable results. This methodology can also be used to value the tax shields arising from debt if the interest expenses cannot be used in full during the period in which they occur. Our simulation suggests that the assumption that interest expenses are immediately deductable will yield inadequate company values.

The Effects of the Interest Ceiling Rule on Different Industries, Sizes and Legal Forms of Enterprises (Die Auswirkungen Der Zinsschranke Auf Unterschiedliche Branchen, Unternehmensgrößen Und Rechtsformen)

The objective of this article is to analyse the effects of the German interest ceiling rule by implementing a simulation model considering uncertainty. Aggregated empiric statistical data of companies in various branches, enterprise sizes and legal forms are entered into a Monte-Carlo simulation model to estimate the development of their individual company values. The model illustrates the significant influences of the interest ceiling rule. However the effects are not only negative, as a possible paradox positive effect was identified due to the combined impacts of a tax loss carry-forward and the interest ceiling rule.

Financial Leverage and Corporate Taxation: Evidence from German Corporate Tax Return Data

We estimate the impact of effective profit taxation on the financial leverage of corporations on the basis of a pseudo-panel constructed from corporate tax return micro data for the period 1998-2001, a period which saw the introduction of a major corporate tax reform in Germany. The financial leverage is measured by the ratio of long-term debt to total capital. Endogeneity of the effective corporate tax rate is controlled for by an instrumental variable approach. Our instrument for the observed effective tax rate is the counterfactual tax rate a corporation would face in a particular period had there be no endogenous change of its financial structure. This counterfactual is obtained from a detailed microsimulation model of the corporate sector based on tax return micro data. We find a statistically significant and relatively large positive effect of the tax rate on corporate leverage: on average, an increase of the tax rate by 10 percent would increase the financial leverage by about 5 percent. We also find that the debt ratio is less responsive for small corporations and for corporations that benefit from various other forms of tax shields, in particular depreciation allowances and tax loss carry-forward. However, tax effects do not seem to depend on risk, although the level of economic risk does affect corporate leverage.

Financial Leverage and Corporate Taxation - Evidence from German Corporate Tax Return Data

We estimate the impact of effective profit taxation on the financial leverage of corporations on the basis of a pseudo-panel constructed from corporate tax return micro data for the period 1998-2001, a period which saw the introduction of a major corporate tax reform in Germany. The financial leverage is measured by the ratio of long-term debt to total capital. Endogeneity of the effective corporate tax rate is controlled for by an instrumental variable approach. Our instrument for the observed effective tax rate is the counterfactual tax rate a corporation would face in a particular period had there been no endogenous change of its financial structure. This counterfactual is obtained from a detailed microsimulation model of the corporate sector based on tax return micro data. We find a statistically significant and relatively large positive effect of the tax rate on corporate leverage: on average, an increase of the tax rate by 10 percent would increase the financial leverage by about 5 percent. We also find that the debt ratio is less responsive for small corporations and for corporations that benefit from various other forms of tax shields, in particular depreciation allowances and tax loss carry-forward. However, tax effects do not seem to depend on risk, although the level of economic risk does affect corporate leverage.

Tax Loss Offset Restrictions - Last Resort for the Treasury? An Empirical Evaluation of Tax Loss Offset Restrictions Based on Micro Data

In Germany, the tax loss carry-forward of corporations significantly increased over the last decade. At the same time only a small percentage of losses have been effectively offset in the following periods. One potential reason for this puzzle is that stricter loss offset restrictions have been introduced in recent years. I use a newly developed micro simulation model for the corporate sector in Germany to evaluate the fiscal effects of these restrictions. Additionally, distributional breakdowns concerning the amounts of tax loss carry-forward and the effects of loss offset restrictions are provided. I find that the restrictions on the use of tax loss carryback are rather ineffective while the newly introduced minimum taxation considerably increases yearly tax revenue by 1.1 billion Euro.

Are Bonds Desirable in Tax-Deferred Accounts?

This paper analyzes the consumption investment problem over the life cycle for investors with tax-deferred investment opportunities. According to the classical result of Black (1980) and Tepper (1981) with unlimited borrowing and short-selling, bonds should be exclusively held in these accounts. We argue that in tax-systems like the US where tax rebates on capital losses are limited, this is not necessarily true. Since a tax loss carry-forward is a less attractive compensation than an immediate tax rebate payment, the different taxable treatment of realized capital gains and losses increases the desirability of holding stocks in tax-deferred accounts. Our results suggest that this feature of the tax-code can help explaining why private investors violate the Tepper-Black result and hold stocks in their tax-deferred accounts.

Corporate Taxes and Investment: The Cash Flow Channel

Existing literature focuses on how corporate taxation affects firms’ investment decisions by altering after-tax returns. This paper instead examines how corporate taxation affects investment by reducing the cash flow a firm has available to invest in the current period. I use a sharp nonlinearity in the mapping from pre-tax profitability to taxes created by the tax loss carryforward feature of the tax code to identify the cash flow effect of taxes. The results indicate that firms reduce investment when they pay more taxes, especially when unfavorable capital market conditions create a greater dependence of investment on internal sources of cash.

Discussion of Valuation of a Firm with a Tax Loss Carryover

De Waegenaere et al. (2003) examine the properties of the market-to-book ratio of deferred tax assets arising from tax loss carryovers. The numerator of this ratio reflects the net present value of future cash flows attributable to the deferred tax asset, while the denominator reflects an undiscounted book value. Lack of discounting in the denominator suggests that the market-to-book ratio would be between 0 and 1. However, prior empirical results report market-to-book ratios greater than 1. This paper attempts to provide a theoretical explanation of conditions under which market-to-book ratios might be greater than 1. The paper has two important strengths that broaden its audience appeal. First, its consideration of deferred tax assets focuses on the interface between tax and financial accounting. Second, it attempts to provide theory that explains puzzling empirical results and motivates future empirical testing to validate its predictions. However, the link between any theoretical model and empirical observation focuses attention on the underlying assumptions of the model. This discussion examines several assumptions of this model that may render it inappropriate to the empirical setting it attempts to explain. DEFINING THE VALUATION ALLOWANCE As defined in the paper, the market-to-book ratio of the tax loss carryforward is: