企業社會責任與財稅差異之關聯

The Association Between CSR and Book-Tax Differences

過去文獻已發現財稅差異可做為衡量盈餘品質的指標或企業的避稅程度，而探討企業社會責任（corporate social responsibility, CSR）與盈餘管理的文獻認為若企業負起CSR 只是為其盈餘管理行為建立起保護傘，此時CSR 與盈餘管理呈正相關；若以倫理道德觀點來看，則CSR 與盈餘管理呈負相關。本研究則探討財稅差異（book-tax difference, BTD）與CSR 的關聯。由於倫理道德要求CSR企業必需同時注意所有的利害關係人的正當利益，故以財稅差異來判斷企業負起CSR 是否基於道德較之從單純的盈餘管理更適當。本研究以2007~2012 年天下企業公民TOP 50 之企業為對象，再選出配對公司，探討財稅差異與CSR 之關聯。實證結果發現CSR 與財稅差異呈顯著負相關，初步結果證實在臺灣負起企業社會責任之公司，乃出自倫理道德。

The research studying the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management suggest that if managers engage in CSR practices based on opportunistic incentives, the earnings management is positively associated with the CSR. If managers engage in CSR practices based on ethic, then we would observe a negative relation between CSR and earnings management. This paper examines the relationship between CSR and book-tax differences. Prior research provides evidence that book-tax differences are useful in detecting earnings management and tax planning activities. As ethical theories requires a CSR firm to give attention to the legitimate interests of all stakeholders, hence investigating the relationship between CRS and book-tax differences is more suitable than between CRS and earnings management. If managers engage in CSR based on a moral imperative, then we predict that negative association between CSR and book-tax differences. We collect 2007~2012 Taiwan’s Top 50 Corporate Citizens in the Common Wealth Magazine and matched the CRS firms with similar size. Our results show that the CSR is negative associated with book-tax differences. This indicates that firms engage in CSR practices based on ethic in Taiwan.