Auditor-provided tax services and tax avoidance: evidence from Spain

We investigate the relationship between auditor-provided tax services (APTS) and tax avoidance in Spain. As a result of a recently enacted EU legislation, APTS is seriously restricted within the EU. The evidence available so far for the US provides consistent support for a positive relationship betw...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Argilés-Bosch, J.M., Ravenda, Diego, Garcia-Blandon, Josep, Castillo-Merino, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:20.500.14342/3862
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14342/3862
https://doi.org/10.1080/02102412.2020.1723947
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Auditors providing tax services
Tax avoidance
Effective tax rate
Litigation risk
Litigis
Comptabilitat fiscal
Auditors
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Descripción
Sumario:We investigate the relationship between auditor-provided tax services (APTS) and tax avoidance in Spain. As a result of a recently enacted EU legislation, APTS is seriously restricted within the EU. The evidence available so far for the US provides consistent support for a positive relationship between APTS and tax avoidance. However, given the importance of country-specific institutional issues, such as litigation risk, to understand the relationship between auditors and clients, the possibility of generalising the US evidence to other countries is limited. Supporting this view, our results indicate that the positive relationship between APTS and tax avoidance observed in the US does not hold in the Spanish market. This result seems robust, as it holds independently of the proxy utilised for measuring tax avoidance, as well as across an array of sensitivity checks. This study has potentially interesting implications at both theoretical and practical levels.