This study examines the tax avoidance behavior of firms prior to the issuance, and following the resolution, of SEC tax comment letters. We find that firms that appear to engage in greater tax avoidance are more likely to receive a tax-related SEC comment letter. We also find that firms...

Tax-related accounts are complex and often the last accounts finalized in the financial reporting process. Accordingly, these accounts can be used as a ‘last chance' earnings management tool (Dhaliwal, Gleason, and Mills 2004). We investigate the extent to which an audit firm's industry...

This study examines whether audit firm knowledge and resources affect the likelihood a company receives consecutive going concern opinions. We also consider whether consecutive going concern opinions are useful to financial statement users. Recent comments from the FASB and PCAOB question the...

We investigate whether variation in the volatility of tax outcomes across firms is associated with the extent of financial constraints. We document a positive association between current-period financial constraints and the volatility of cash effective tax rates in subsequent periods. We find...

This study examines the association between the industry diversity of an audit office and audit quality, where industry diversity is the extent to which clients differ by industry classification. We find a negative association between industry diversity and audit quality that is robust to...

We use a regulatory shock to examine the extent to which the prospect of short selling affects tax disclosure. From May 2005 to August 2007, the SEC initiated a pilot program under Regulation SHO, which temporarily exempted one-third of the firms in the Russell 3000 index from short sale price...

This study examines whether companies' decisions to dismiss or substantially reduce reliance on their audit firms as tax-service providers in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act affect tax avoidance. We hypothesize that decoupling audit and tax-service provision and subsequently obtaining tax...

We examine whether incumbent firms react to significant IPOs in the same industry by adjusting their tax policy to align with the tax outcomes of the IPO firm. We find that incumbent firms adjust their effective tax rate in response to the difference between it and the effective tax rate of the...

In this study, we examine whether the flexibility in a firm's business model (i.e., the way in which the firm manages and deploys its resources) is associated with its financial reporting practices. Recent survey evidence suggests that executives view firms' business models as a key determinant...

This study examines the determinants and consequences of tax service provider choice among not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. Understanding how clients choose among professional services firms for tax services is important both because of the economic significance of tax service revenues to...