Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Aggressiveness

50 Pages Posted: 3 Aug 2011 Last revised: 9 Aug 2011

See all articles by Grant Richardson

Grant Richardson

Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance

Roman Lanis

University of Technology Sydney (UTS); Financial Research Network (FIRN)

Date Written: August 2, 2011

Abstract

This study examines the association between corporate social responsibility and corporate tax aggressiveness. Based on a sample of 408 publicly listed Australian corporations for the 2008/2009 financial year, our regression results indicate that the higher the level of corporate social responsibility disclosure of a corporation, the lower is the level of tax aggressiveness. We find a negative and statistically significant association between corporate social responsibility disclosure and tax aggressiveness which holds across a number of different regression model specifications. Accordingly, our results show that more socially responsible corporations are likely to deter tax aggressive activities. Finally, the regression results from our additional analysis indicate that the social investment commitment, and corporate and CSR strategy (including the ethics and business conduct) of a corporation are important elements of CSR activities that have a negative impact on tax aggressiveness.

Suggested Citation

Richardson, Grant and Lanis, Roman, Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Aggressiveness (August 2, 2011). 2011 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting - Tax Concurrent Sessions, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1904002 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1904002

Grant Richardson

Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance ( email )

4 Eastern Road
North Ryde
New South Wales, NSW 2109
Australia

Roman Lanis (Contact Author)

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) ( email )

15 Broadway, Ultimo
PO Box 123
Sydney, NSW 2007
Australia

Financial Research Network (FIRN)

C/- University of Queensland Business School
St Lucia, 4071 Brisbane
Queensland
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.firn.org.au

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