基本稅額與盈餘管理

Condensed Version in English The Basic Tax and Earnings Management

本研究在探討企業是否為因應最低稅負制（Alternative Minimum Tax）的實施而從事盈餘管理的行為。為維護租稅公平，台灣在2006年開始實施最低稅負制，企業將原本減免的各項所得加回課稅所得，減除一定的扣除金額後，再乘上最低稅負制的稅率，即得出基本稅額，若基本稅額超過一般稅制稅額，即需按照基本稅額繳稅。政府希望能藉此矯正以往租稅減免過於浮濫的情形，為近幾十年來少見的加稅措施。然而，稅制變動會影響企業財務報導的行為，企業可能為了使稅制變動所增加的成本極小化，而從事課稅所得盈餘管理的行為。本研究以上市櫃公司在2006年財報中公佈的基本稅額資料，衡量其盈餘管理動機的高低，並以裁決性應計數偵測盈餘管理，在控制了公司規模、負債比率、銷貨成長等變數後，發現基本稅額差額與裁決性應計數間，有顯著的負向關係存在，此顯示出我國的企業面對最低稅負制時，為了避免稅負成本遽增，確實會選擇將盈餘操縱往下，以避免稅負增加。

To uphold tax equity, Taiwan adopted the alternative minimum tax (AMT) in 2006. This research investigates whether reported earnings were managed in response to the adoption of AMT. The amount of basic income of an enterprise in Taiwan shall be the sum of the taxable income as calculated in accordance with the Taiwan's Income Tax Act and income exempted from profit-seeking enterprise's Income Tax. And the amount of basic tax shall be the amount of basic income after deducting NT$2,000,000, and then multiplied by the tax rate prescribed by the Executive Yuan. The amount of income tax payable will be the larger of the amount of basic tax and regular income tax. After the implementation of AMT, the tax burden generally increases.Tax system change often provides a substantial incentive for firms to manage earnings. Using data about basic tax disclosed by firms listed in the Taiwan Stock Exchange, our empirical results indicate that firms with higher amount of basic tax than regular income tax tend to manage their accruals to decrease reported income.