This study investigates whether corporate tax sheltering activities(or tax avoidance) affect firm value and accrual components affect the relationship between corporate tax sheltering activities and firm value.
The traditional view of corporate tax sheltering activities suggests that firm value should increase with tax sheltering activities because it reduces transfer of resources from shareholders to the government. However, a recent trend of study on the corporate tax sheltering activities, from the agency perspective, suggests that firm value should decrease with tax sheltering activities because management may exploit tax avoidance to camouflage rent extraction.
Prior literature that analyzes the relationship between tax avoidance and firm value has used a residual from a regression of total book-tax difference(BTD) on total accruals(TA) to estimate a measure of tax sheltering activities(TS) developed by Desai and Dharmapala(2006). However, a measure of tax sheltering activities(TS) developed by Desai and Dharmapala(2006) can not explain the corporate tax sheltering activities using discretionary accounting accrual components. Though income tax provisions for income and expense recognition can differ from financial reporting requirements, in many cases they are sufficiently similar so that items of income and expense are recognized in the same period for both tax and financial reporting purposes(Guenther et al. 1997).
Accounting accruals are composed of both nondiscretionary and discretionary components. In prior accounting research, discretionary accruals are proxies for earnings quality especially from the financial accounting perspective. However, accounting accruals are not only used to manage book income but also used to manage taxable income. Calegari(2000) disaggregated discretionary accrual into two components from the tax planning perspective. One is discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC), and the other is discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA). Discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC) are discretionary accruals that highly correlated with tax reporting requirements and discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA) are discretionary accruals with relatively lower book-tax conformity than discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(Calegari 2000).
Firms using discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA) are able to reduce taxable income without reducing book income(financial statement income). However, firms using discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC) will simultaneously reduce both their book income and taxable income. When firms use discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC), they faces a trade-off between financial reporting and tax planning. Financial reporting costs(or capital market pressure) are non-tax costs, such as the perceived negative stock market consequences associated with reductions in reported earnings(Klassen 1997). These accrual components may affect the relationship between corporate tax sheltering activities and firm value. In this study, I investigate the impact of accrual components-discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC) and discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA)- on the relationship between a measure of tax sheltering activities(TS) developed by Desai and Dharmapala(2006) and firm value.
In this paper, I analyze 2,507 non-financial and December year-end firm/year observations listed in the Korean KOSPI market during 2001 and 2010. Tax avoidance is measured using the difference between book income and taxable income not attributable to accounting accruals(Desai and Dharmapala 2006). Firm value is measured using Tobin’s Q(TQ). Accrual components are measured using discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC) and discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA) suggested by Calegari(2000). I use interaction between corporate tax sheltering activities(TS) and accrual components(DBTC or DBOA) to examine how accrual components affect the relationship between tax avoidance and firm value.
I find following empirical results. First, there is a significant negative relation between discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC) and tax sheltering activities(TS) and a significant positive relation between discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA) and tax sheltering activities(TS). Second, there is a significant negative relation between discretionary book-tax conformity accruals(DBTC) and discretionary book-only accruals(DBOA). Third, corporate tax sheltering activities(TS) have a significant negative effect on corporate firm value(TQ). Fourth, DBTCD(dummy variable that equals one if DBTC has a negative value(-); and zero otherwise) has a significant negative effect on corporate firm value(TQ) and DBOAD(dummy variable that equals one if DBOA has a positive value(+); and zero otherwise) has a significant positive effect on corporate firm value(TQ). Fifth, GD1(dummy variable that equals one if DBTC and DBOA has a positive value(+); and zero otherwise) has a significant positive effect on corporate firm value(TQ) and GD3(dummy variable that equals one if DBTC and DBOA has a negative value(-); and zero otherwise) has a significant negative effect on corporate firm value(TQ). Sixth, there is no significant relation between GD2(dummy variable that equals one if DBTC has a negative value(-) and DBOA has a positive value(+); and zero otherwise) and corporate firm value(TQ), and between GD4(dummy variable that equals one if DBTC has a positive value(+) and DBOA has a negative value(-); and zero otherwise) and corporate firm value(TQ).
These results suggest that accrual components(DBTC or DBOA) play an important role in determining the relationship between corporate tax sheltering activities and firm value. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the impact of accrual components(DBTC or DBOA) on the relationship between corporate tax sheltering activities and firm value. These findings would provide valuable insights to companies, taxing authorities, regulators, investors, and other interested users.