Using a sample covering practically all dividend-paying small and medium-sized private companies in Finland during 2006–2010, we document that earnings management in these companies is driven by two concurrent forces: the willingness to pay (tax-exempt) dividends and avoiding unnecessary...

Using a large proprietary data set from the internal records of the Finnish Tax Administration for the fiscal year 2011, we examine the factors that trigger adjustments by the tax authority to the taxable income reported by around 25,000 small private companies. Using that data, we develop a new...

This study examines the effect of tax aggressiveness and voluntary audit of the financial statements on the likelihood of tax adjustments in small private companies. We provide evidence that (1) tax aggressiveness increases the likelihood of the tax authority not accepting taxable income as...