The Effects of Tax Reform on Labor Demand within Tax Departments

Abstract

This study examines the effect of major tax reform on firms’ demand for internal tax department employees. Specifically, we analyze the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) on the number of job postings and skill profiles for tax department positions in large U.S. firms. Understanding how tax reform affects the demand for tax employees is important for quantifying potential compliance costs and assessing how firms adjust their tax planning capacity in response to new regulations. Additionally, our findings provide insights into the evolving skill sets required in the context of technological change and intensifying competition for talent. To address our research question, we employ textual analyses and machine learning techniques to identify and classify approximately 30,000 tax-related job postings from 1,620 firms over the period of 2015-2020. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we find a 26.7% increase in the number of tax-related job postings in the three years following the TCJA enactment. This translates into approximately 1.5 new tax department employees, which, based on prior literature estimates of tax department size, implies a 21% increase in the size of the average tax department. Focusing on the dynamics, we find that this effect is concentrated in the second year after the reform. Consistent with increased compliance costs and new tax planning opportunities, we also find that firms seek tax department employees for both compliance and planning roles, with some evidence of greater demand for employees focused on tax compliance.

Keywords: tax department structure, tax reform, TCJA, tax risk, tax complexity, tax employees

JEL Classification: H25, H26, M12