財務報表可比性與租稅規避

Financial Statement Comparability and Tax Avoidance

本文探討財務報表可比性與租稅規避之關聯性。參考De Franco et al. (2011) 可比性計算方式，以2000 年至2018 年臺灣上市櫃公司為對象，檢驗財務報表可比性與租稅規避的關聯性。實證顯示財務報表可比性與租稅規避呈顯著負向關係。可能導因於財務報表可比性能降低資訊不對稱，提高企業外部監管風險、避稅動機降低；另一方面，財務報表可比性的提高透過會計資訊品質帶來公司內部治理效果，顯示較高度的財務報表可比性，能夠遏止經理人利用避稅剝奪股東利益的行為。本文進一步發現存有資訊不對稱問題的公司，財務報表可比性對租稅規避的抑制作用更為顯著。敏感性測試，採用不同租稅規避指標，以及資訊品質指標重新檢驗後，仍獲得穩健的結果；採用工具變數法降低內生性問題，發現財務報表可比性愈高，企業避稅程度愈低。此外，實施IFRS 後，財務報表可比性更能抑制以帳面有效稅率衡量的租稅規避。

This study investigates whether financial statement comparability is associated with corporate tax avoidance. Following the empirical approach of De Franco et al. (2011), we use the data of TSEC and OTC listed companies from 2000 to 2018 and examine the association between financial statement comparability and tax avoidance. The results show a negative relationship between financial statement comparability and tax avoidance. The findings indicate that comparability reduces information asymmetry, which increases the detection risk of aggressive tax avoidance; on the other hand, the improvement of comparability brings positive effects on a company’s internal governance, suggesting that a higher degree of comparability inhibits the occurrence of management’s self-interested tax avoidance. This study further finds the deterrence effect of comparability on tax avoidance behavior is more pronounced for firms in a more asymmetric information environment. The results of sensitivity analyses remain robust to alternative measures of major variables. Using instrumental variable methods to address endogeneity concerns, the results show that more comparable financial information leads to less tax avoidance behavior, Moreover, the information environment plays a moderate role in increasing the relationship between comparability and tax avoidance.