Business Strategy and Tax Aggressiveness in Brazil

Abstract

This study is designed to verify the strategic types and the relationship between prospector and defender companies and tax aggressiveness for Brazilian companies listed on the B3. To identify the type, following concepts from Miles and Snow (1978, 2003), we use five years of data. Excluding financial companies, prospectors and defenders were identified, which were used later to verify the relation with tax aggressiveness. Most Brazilian companies are analyzers, with prospector companies being a minority, and defenders representing a little over 21%. Defender companies have a higher tendency to practice aggressive tax planning when compare to Analyzer and Prospector.

Keywords: Strategy, Prospector, Defender, Analyzer, Tax Aggressiveness

JEL Classification: M10, M40