This paper investigates the usage, determinants and earnings effect of special purpose entities based on a large sample of firms from 1994 to 2004. We find that SPE use has grown substantially in recent years and that the number of SPEs is related to economic motivations, financial reporting...

The U.S. Ramp;D credit has always been incremental in nature, providing a credit for qualified Ramp;D expenses exceeding some base amount. Originally, the base amount was the average of the previous three years' Ramp;D expenses (i.e., a moving average). After heavy criticism that the credit's...

This study examines the availability and incentive effects of the Research and Experimentation tax credit following structural changes in the computation of the credit enacted in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (OBRA89). We find that overall firm eligibility declined after OBRA89,...

We document that simulated corporate marginal tax rates based on financial statement data (Shevlin 1990 and Graham 1996a) are highly correlated with simulated rates based on corporate tax return data. We provide algorithms that can be used to estimate the book or tax simulated rates when they...

We document that simulated corporate marginal tax rates based on financial statement data [Shevlin, T., 1990. Estimating corporate marginal tax rates with asymmetric tax treatment of gains and losses. The Journal of the American Taxation Association 11, 51-67; Graham, J., 1996a. Debt and the...