Effective tax rates (ETRs) are often used to compare tax avoidance across firms and time. Using firms' detailed tax footnote data, we find that the effect of valuation allowances (VA) related to prior-period losses biases GAAP ETRs. This downward bias explains almost all of the downward trend in...

We examine the effect of high quality information technology (IT) on corporate tax outcomes. Using a measure of IT quality constructed from rankings in InformationWeek magazine, we find that firms with high quality IT are able to achieve both lower and less volatile cash effective tax rates than...

Although deferred tax liabilities (DTLs) represent a significant financial statement liability for most firms, research provides mixed evidence concerning investors' valuation of these items. Using an expanded dataset of hand-collected tax footnotes, I find evidence suggesting that investors...