Tax is one of the most significant business costs incurred by firms, and it has a direct impact on profitability and shareholder value. Consequently, firms have financial incentives to be tax aggressive. However, tax aggressive behavior may adversely impact a firm’s reputation, an invaluable...

This study examines a setting in which a tax reporting decision is delegated to a firm 's tax manager. Using financial accounting measures of tax expense to evaluate the tax manager allows the fi rm to efficiently attain the level of tax avoidance it prefers, despite the fact that the...

We use a proprietary data set with detailed executive compensation information to examine the relationship between the incentives of the tax director and GAAP and cash effective tax rates, the book-tax gap, and measures of tax aggressiveness. We find that the incentive compensation of the tax...

The empirical literature shows that management incentives often reduce corporate tax aggressiveness. Focussing on the riskiness of tax aggressiveness this paper offers one explanation for the observed negative relation. Using an agency framework, I analyze the manager's choice of effort...

A growing literature examines how a firm's behavior impacts the behavior of its peers. In this paper, we examine how changes in tax paying, and the associated financial reporting, impact a firm's peers. Changes to tax paying and reporting behavior at other firms within a peer group can be...

In this study, we investigate the association between financial constraints, at both the macroeconomic and firm-specific level, and one potentially significant source of internal funds available to firms – cash savings generated through tax planning. In equilibrium a firm will undertake tax...

This analysis of formula apportionment compared to the current U.S. system recognizes that income shifting has two main sources, excess returns attributable to intangibles and debt, and that a major goal of income division systems is preserving neutrality between arm's length and related party...

We investigate whether low Cash ETRs are associated with two distinct effects — tax avoidance and low earnings quality — and if so, whether the two effects can be separated. Separating these effects is important: if upward earnings management is driving low Cash ETRs, inferences based on tax...

This national report has been prepared as a contribution to the Conference of the European Association of Tax Law Professors entitled ‘Tax Avoidance Revisited: Exploring the Boundaries of Anti-Avoidance Rules in the EU BEPS Context. The conference is to be held in Munich, Germany, on 2-4 June...