避稅程度與財務報表可讀性：論產業專精會計師之角色

Tax Avoidance and Financial Statement Readability: The Role of Industry Specialization Auditor

在全球反避稅的趨勢下，企業從事避稅行為所需承擔的風險隨之提高，因此當企業進行避稅行為時，將有強烈的誘因向外界隱藏其行為。過去文獻亦指出，高管常透過出具可讀性較差的財報來掩蓋其不欲人知的訊息，因此，本文欲探討企業避稅程度與財務報表可讀性之關聯，並進一步檢測高品質的審計是否可調節兩者的關係。本研究以2013~2018 年臺灣上市櫃公司為樣本，實證結果發現，企業避稅程度越高時，財報的可讀性越差；然而，若公司由產業專精會計師查核，將可有效減緩公司避稅行為對財報可讀性之損害。綜合上述，進行避稅行為之企業確實較可能透過提出不易閱讀的財報，使外界難以察覺企業的避稅行為；但產業專精會計師可作為有效的公司治理機制，抑制高管的投機行為。

As worldwide pushback against corporate tax avoidance increases, management who engage in tax avoidance are incentivized to obfuscate firms’ financial information to reduce the likelihood of being challenged by tax authorities and investors. Previous research has indicated that when management has an incentive to conceal their opportunistic activities, the firm’s financial statements become less readable. Building on this indication, this study aims at investigating whether firms with tax avoidance activities issue less readable financial statements. It also determines whether high-quality audit can moderate the effects of tax avoidance on financial statement readability. Using the data of Taiwanese listed companies from 2013 to 2018 as the sample, empirical results show that firms with high levels of tax avoidance issue more complex and less readable financial statements. Furthermore, we confirm that the negative association between financial statement readability and the level of tax avoidance can be mitigated if firms are audited by industry specialists. These findings suggest that firms that engage in tax avoidance are more prone to utilizing complex financial reporting strategies that are challenging to comprehend. This complexity may serve as a barrier for outsiders attempting to identify their tax avoidance practices. However, high-quality audit is essential for effective corporate governance, while protecting the users of financial reports against the opportunistic actions of management.