未分配盈餘加徵10％營利事業所得稅對企業提前適用財務會計準則公報第35號之影響

The Effect of Additional 10% Surtax on Undistributed Retained Earnings upon the Firm's Early Adoption of SFAS No. 35

本文目的乃在探討未分配盈餘加徵10%營利事業所得稅是否會影響公司於2004年『提前適用』財務會計準則公報第35號－「資產減損之會計處理準則」－之決策。實證結果發現，當未分配盈餘加徵10%之租稅負擔愈大時，愈會減低公司提前適用財務會計準則公報第35號之意願。換言之，2004年報稅基礎之未分配盈餘係以課稅所得為基準，而資產減損係屬未實現損失，在強調現金基礎的稅法規定下，不能被認列為損失並於課稅所得中減除，因此未分配盈餘虛增，加徵10%之稅負增加，基於此考量，公司提前適用財務會計準則公報第35號之意願較低。

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between additional 10% surtax on undistributed retained earnings and the likelihood of firm's early adoption of SFAS No. 35, Accounting for Asset Impairments. The data set contains 295 observations with 90 early adoptions and 205 timely adoptions. The result shows that the larger burden of additional 10% surtax on undistributed retained earnings, the lower likelihood of the firm adopting SFAS No. 35 early. In other words, the additional 10% surtax on undistributed retained earnings is based on taxable income. Under the current cash-basis-oriented tax rules, asset impairment loss is regarded as an unrealized loss and thus cannot be used as a deductible item in the computation of taxable income. Consequently, the undistributed retained earnings is increased nominally and a firm will be levied more 10% surtax under the integrated income tax system. Therefore, the likelihood of a firm adopting early SFAS No. 35 decreases.