[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v61y2021i4p5681-5730.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does credit rating conservatism matter for corporate tax avoidance?

Author

Listed:
  • Tao Chen
  • Sidney Leung
  • Lingmin Xie
Abstract
Using the passage of Dodd‐Frank and the US sovereign downgrade as quasi‐natural experiments, we examine the effect of credit rating conservatism on corporate tax avoidance. We find that treatment firms engage in more tax‐planning activities than control firms in both research settings. We further find that these effects are driven mainly by firms with large existing tax‐planning capacity, firms with decreased use of external financing, firm with more reliance on rating information, and firms with weak external monitoring using the large Dodd‐Frank sample. Overall, the findings provide evidence that credit rating conservatism plays a role in corporate tax‐avoidance decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Tao Chen & Sidney Leung & Lingmin Xie, 2021. "Does credit rating conservatism matter for corporate tax avoidance?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5681-5730, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:4:p:5681-5730
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12773
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12773?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Shuping & Chen, Xia & Cheng, Qiang & Shevlin, Terry, 2010. "Are family firms more tax aggressive than non-family firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 41-61, January.
    2. Dyreng, Scott D. & Lindsey, Bradley P. & Thornock, Jacob R., 2013. "Exploring the role Delaware plays as a domestic tax haven," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 751-772.
    3. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Larcker, David F., 2012. "The incentives for tax planning," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 391-411.
    4. Yigit Atilgan & Aloke (Al) Ghosh & Meng Yan & Jieying Zhang, 2015. "Cross‐Listed Bonds, Information Asymmetry, and Conservatism in Credit Ratings," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(5), pages 897-929, August.
    5. Michael Faulkender & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2006. "Does the Source of Capital Affect Capital Structure?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 45-79.
    6. Scott D. Dyreng & Bradley P. Lindsey, 2009. "Using Financial Accounting Data to Examine the Effect of Foreign Operations Located in Tax Havens and Other Countries on U.S. Multinational Firms' Tax Rates," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5), pages 1283-1316, December.
    7. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:4:p:1389-1413 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Guedhami, Omrane & Pittman, Jeffrey, 2008. "The importance of IRS monitoring to debt pricing in private firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 38-58, October.
    9. Richardson, Grant & Lanis, Roman & Taylor, Grantley, 2015. "Financial distress, outside directors and corporate tax aggressiveness spanning the global financial crisis: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 112-129.
    10. Allison Koester & Terry Shevlin & Daniel Wangerin, 2017. "The Role of Managerial Ability in Corporate Tax Avoidance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3285-3310, October.
    11. Isin, Adnan Anil, 2018. "Tax avoidance and cost of debt: The case for loan-specific risk mitigation and public debt financing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 344-378.
    12. Marshall E. Blume & Felix Lim & A. Craig MacKinlay, "undated". "The Declining Credit Quality of US Corporate Debt: Myth or Reality?," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 03-98, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    13. Tian, Gloria Y. & Twite, Garry, 2011. "Corporate governance, external market discipline and firm productivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 403-417, June.
    14. Samuel B. Bonsall & Kevin Koharki & Luke Watson, 2017. "Deciphering Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Credit Rating Disagreements," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 818-848, June.
    15. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    16. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Li, Yinghua & Zhang, Liandong, 2011. "Corporate tax avoidance and stock price crash risk: Firm-level analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 639-662, June.
    17. Anderson, Ronald C. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Reeb, David M., 2004. "Board characteristics, accounting report integrity, and the cost of debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 315-342, September.
    18. John R. Graham & Michelle Hanlon & Terry Shevlin & Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Tax Rates and Corporate Decision-making," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(9), pages 3128-3175.
    19. Gravelle, Jane G., 2009. "Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(4), pages 727-753, December.
    20. Mr. John D Brondolo, 2009. "Collecting Taxes During an Economic Crisis: Challenges and Policy Options," IMF Staff Position Notes 2009/017, International Monetary Fund.
    21. Chansog (Francis) Kim & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "Corporate Political Connections and Tax Aggressiveness," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 78-114, March.
    22. Alexander Hillert & Heiko Jacobs & Sebastian Müller, 2014. "Media Makes Momentum," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(12), pages 3467-3501.
    23. Desai, Mihir A. & Dyck, Alexander & Zingales, Luigi, 2007. "Theft and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 591-623, June.
    24. Darren J. Kisgen, 2007. "The Influence of Credit Ratings on Corporate Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 19(3), pages 65-73, June.
    25. Heitor Almeida & Igor Cunha & Miguel A. Ferreira & Felipe Restrepo, 2017. "The Real Effects of Credit Ratings: The Sovereign Ceiling Channel," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 249-290, February.
    26. Bannier, Christina E. & Hirsch, Christian W., 2010. "The economic function of credit rating agencies - What does the watchlist tell us?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 3037-3049, December.
    27. Hope, Ole-Kristian & Ma, Mark (Shuai) & Thomas, Wayne B., 2013. "Tax avoidance and geographic earnings disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 170-189.
    28. An, Heng (Hunter) & Chan, Kam C., 2008. "Credit ratings and IPO pricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 584-595, December.
    29. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2015. "Taxes and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Linguistic Cues," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 777-819, September.
    30. Kayhan, Ayla & Titman, Sheridan, 2007. "Firms' histories and their capital structures," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 1-32, January.
    31. repec:fth:pennfi:67 is not listed on IDEAS
    32. John Brondolo, 2009. "Collecting Taxes During an Economic Crisis; Challenges and Policy Options," IMF Staff Position Notes 2009/17, International Monetary Fund.
    33. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    34. Xia, Han, 2014. "Can investor-paid credit rating agencies improve the information quality of issuer-paid rating agencies?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 450-468.
    35. Marshall E. Blume & Felix Lim & A. Craig MacKinlay, "undated". "The Declining Credit Quality of US Corporate Debt: Myth or Reality?," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 3-98, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    36. David A. Ziebart & Sara A. Reiter, 1992. "Bond ratings, bond yields and financial information," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 252-282, September.
    37. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_003 is not listed on IDEAS
    38. Louis H. Ederington & Jess B. Yawitz & Brian E. Roberts, 1987. "The Informational Content Of Bond Ratings," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 10(3), pages 211-226, September.
    39. Sonja Olhoft Rego & Ryan Wilson, 2012. "Equity Risk Incentives and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 775-810, June.
    40. Ji Sun & Yi Zhou & Jiaguo (George) Wang & Jie (Michael) Guo, 2020. "Influence of media coverage and sentiment on seasoned equity offerings," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 557-585, April.
    41. My Nguyen & Justin Hung Nguyen, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm tax avoidance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(4), pages 3935-3978, December.
    42. Clive Lennox & Petro Lisowsky & Jeffrey Pittman, 2013. "Tax Aggressiveness and Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 739-778, September.
    43. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    44. Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Hang Pham, 2017. "Credit Ratings and Earnings Management around IPOs," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1-2), pages 154-195, January.
    45. Chen, Tao & Xie, Lingmin & Zhang, Yuanyuan, 2017. "How does analysts' forecast quality relate to corporate investment efficiency?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 217-240.
    46. Fatima Alali & Asokan Anandarajan & Wei Jiang, 2012. "The effect of corporate governance on firm’s credit ratings: further evidence using governance score in the United States," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(2), pages 291-312, June.
    47. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    48. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    49. Chung, Kee H. & Zhang, Hao, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Institutional Ownership," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 247-273, February.
    50. Boone, Audra L. & White, Joshua T., 2015. "The effect of institutional ownership on firm transparency and information production," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 508-533.
    51. Ramin P. Baghai & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2014. "Have Rating Agencies Become More Conservative? Implications for Capital Structure and Debt Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 1961-2005, October.
    52. Darren J. Kisgen, 2006. "Credit Ratings and Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1035-1072, June.
    53. Waisman, Maya, 2013. "Product market competition and the cost of bank loans: Evidence from state antitakeover laws," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 4721-4737.
    54. Denis, David J. & Mihov, Vassil T., 2003. "The choice among bank debt, non-bank private debt, and public debt: evidence from new corporate borrowings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 3-28, October.
    55. Chen, Tao & Lin, Chen, 2017. "Does Information Asymmetry Affect Corporate Tax Aggressiveness?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(5), pages 2053-2081, October.
    56. Petacchi, Reining, 2015. "Information asymmetry and capital structure: Evidence from regulation FD," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 143-162.
    57. Giroud, Xavier & Mueller, Holger M., 2010. "Does corporate governance matter in competitive industries?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 312-331, March.
    58. Gao, Haoyu & Wang, Junbo & Wang, Yanchu & Wu, Chunchi & Dong, Xi, 2020. "Media Coverage and the Cost of Debt," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 429-471, March.
    59. Xavier Giroud & Holger M. Mueller, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, and Equity Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 563-600, April.
    60. Harford, Jarrad & Uysal, Vahap B., 2014. "Bond market access and investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 147-163.
    61. Sanjeev Bhojraj & Partha Sengupta, 2003. "Effect of Corporate Governance on Bond Ratings and Yields: The Role of Institutional Investors and Outside Directors," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(3), pages 455-476, July.
    62. Long Chen & David A. Lesmond & Jason Wei, 2007. "Corporate Yield Spreads and Bond Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(1), pages 119-149, February.
    63. Beaver, William H. & Shakespeare, Catherine & Soliman, Mark T., 2006. "Differential properties in the ratings of certified versus non-certified bond-rating agencies," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 303-334, December.
    64. Gao, Yu & Liao, Scott & Wang, Xue, 2018. "Capital markets’ assessment of the economic impact of the Dodd–Frank Act on systemically important financial firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 204-223.
    65. Sumit Agarwal & Vincent Y. S. Chen & Weina Zhang, 2016. "The Information Value of Credit Rating Action Reports: A Textual Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(8), pages 2218-2240, August.
    66. Charlie Weir & David Laing & Phillip J. McKnight, 2002. "Internal and External Governance Mechanisms: Their Impact on the Performance of Large UK Public Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5&6), pages 579-611.
    67. Charlie Weir & David Laing & Phillip J. McKnight, 2002. "Internal and External Governance Mechanisms: Their Impact on the Performance of Large UK Public Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5‐6), pages 579-611.
    68. Petya Platikanova, 2017. "Debt Maturity and Tax Avoidance," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 97-124, January.
    69. Manuel Adelino & Miguel A. Ferreira, 2016. "Bank Ratings and Lending Supply: Evidence from Sovereign Downgrades," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(7), pages 1709-1746.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xing Liu & Lingxuan Yang & Yu Liu, 2023. "Does reputation matter? Evidence on spatial competition in China's bond market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 1533-1570, April.
    2. Devos, Erik & Rahman, Shofiqur, 2023. "Does labor unemployment insurance affect corporate tax aggressiveness?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nguyen, Justin Hung, 2022. "How do labor adjustment costs affect corporate tax planning? Evidence from labor skills," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Fangjun Wang & Shuolei Xu & Junqin Sun & Charles P. Cullinan, 2020. "Corporate Tax Avoidance: A Literature Review And Research Agenda," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 793-811, September.
    3. Chen, Jie & Mishra, Tapas & Song, Wei & Zhang, Qingjing & Zhang, Zhuang, 2024. "The impact of bank mergers on corporate tax aggressiveness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Devos, Erik & Rahman, Shofiqur, 2023. "Does labor unemployment insurance affect corporate tax aggressiveness?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Baghdadi, Ghasan & Podolski, Edward J. & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2022. "CEO risk-seeking and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from pilot CEOs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Luo, Jinbo & Ni, Xiaoran & Tian, Gary Gang, 2020. "Short selling and corporate tax avoidance: Insights from a financial constraint view," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Shams, Syed & Bose, Sudipta & Gunasekarage, Abeyratna, 2022. "Does corporate tax avoidance promote managerial empire building?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    8. Guanming He & Helen Mengbing Ren & Richard Taffler, 2020. "The impact of corporate tax avoidance on analyst coverage and forecasts," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 447-477, February.
    9. Paul Demeré & Michael P. Donohoe & Petro Lisowsky, 2020. "The Economic Effects of Special Purpose Entities on Corporate Tax Avoidance," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1562-1597, September.
    10. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung (Stan) & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2014. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 109-130.
    11. Richardson, Grant & Lanis, Roman & Taylor, Grantley, 2015. "Financial distress, outside directors and corporate tax aggressiveness spanning the global financial crisis: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 112-129.
    12. Asiri, Mohammed & Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Duong, Lien, 2020. "Is corporate tax avoidance associated with investment efficiency?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    13. Karampatsas, Nikolaos & Petmezas, Dimitris & Travlos, Nickolaos G., 2014. "Credit ratings and the choice of payment method in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 474-493.
    14. Dyreng, Scott D. & Hanlon, Michelle & Maydew, Edward L. & Thornock, Jacob R., 2017. "Changes in corporate effective tax rates over the past 25 years," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 441-463.
    15. Kim, Tae-Nyun & Lee, Pil-Seng, 2023. "Product market threats and tax avoidance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Chaudhry, Neeru, 2021. "Tax aggressiveness and idiosyncratic volatility," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    17. Andrew M. Bauer & Junxiong Fang & Jeffrey Pittman & Yinqi Zhang & Yuping Zhao, 2020. "How Aggressive Tax Planning Facilitates the Diversion of Corporate Resources: Evidence from Path Analysis†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1882-1913, September.
    18. Mahmud Hossain & Gerald J. Lobo & Santanu Mitra, 2023. "Firm-level political risk and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 295-327, January.
    19. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Lobo, Gerald J. & Qiu, Buhui, 2021. "Organizational capital, corporate tax avoidance, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    20. Athira, A. & Ramesh, Vishnu K., 2023. "COVID-19 and corporate tax avoidance: International evidence," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:4:p:5681-5730. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.