Can Book-Tax Differences Capture Earnings Management and Tax Management? Empirical Evidence from China
The International Journal of Accounting, Forthcoming
49 Pages Posted: 19 Sep 2010 Last revised: 12 May 2011
Date Written: September 18, 2010
Abstract
This study investigates whether and how book-tax differences (BTDs) are related to earnings management, tax management, and their interactions in Chinese listed companies. Using unique tax-effect BTDs obtained from Chinese B-share listed firms, we find that firms with strong incentives for earnings and tax management exhibit high levels of abnormal BTDs. This suggests that BTDs can be used to capture both accounting and tax manipulations induced by managerial motivations. Our results indicate that earnings management explains 7.4% of abnormal BTDs, tax management accounts for 27.8% of abnormal BTDs, and their interaction explains 3.2% of abnormal BTDs. Tax-effect BTDs are more powerful than income-effect BTDs in capturing opportunistic reporting at both conceptual and empirical levels.
Keywords: Book-Tax Differences, Earnings Management, Tax Management, China
JEL Classification: M41, H29
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Earnings Management: New Evidence Based on Deferred Tax Expense
By John D. Phillips, Morton Pincus, ...
-
An Evaluation of Alternative Measures of Corporate Tax Rates
-
By Merle Erickson, Michelle Hanlon, ...
-
The Relation between Financial and Tax Reporting Measures of Income
By Gil B. Manzon, Jr. and George Plesko
-
What Can We Infer About a Firm's Taxable Income from its Financial Statements?