Why do not all firms engage in tax avoidance?
Empirical evidence suggests that there is substantial cross-firm variation in tax avoidance. However, this variation is not well understood. This paper provides a theoretical background for testing, and thus explaining, cross-firm differences in tax avoidance. We develop a formal model with two agen...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Navarra |
| Repositorio: | Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/119754 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10171/119754 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Moral hazard Tax avoidance Tax planning |
| Sumario: | Empirical evidence suggests that there is substantial cross-firm variation in tax avoidance. However, this variation is not well understood. This paper provides a theoretical background for testing, and thus explaining, cross-firm differences in tax avoidance. We develop a formal model with two agents to analyze the incentives that lead firms to engage in tax avoidance. The tax avoidance decision is a function of moral hazard, tax-planning costs, and the potential to increase earnings. If the potential to increase earnings is low, the tax-planning decision is determined by moral hazard problems. In contrast, when this potential is high, the tax-planning decision is mainly driven by tax-planning costs, such as reputational and political costs. One implication of our model is that moral hazard can (partly) explain why some firms do not engage in tax avoidance: Severe problems of moral hazard make tax avoidance less likely. Our model can be a basis for testing differences in tax avoidance between different types of firms. |
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