Latente Steuern und Earnings Management

On the one hand deferred income taxes can be used for earnings management for external reporting purposes by itself. On the other hand deferred income taxes can indicate earnings management in other accounting areas, fraud and aggressive tax management. Empirical research was able to identify the usefulness of information provided by sundry components of the reported income tax expense for users of financial statements. In particular, the German literature concerning financial statement analysis underestimates the value of this information. This paper critically reviews empirical research and draws conclusions for financial statement analysis and for future studies in this area.     

Income determination for corporate tax purposes using IFRS as a starting point: evidence for listed companies within Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands

The internationalisation of financial accounting and the European Commission’s ambition to harmonise corporate taxation have raised the question whether IFRS accounts could be used for tax purposes. In order to quantify the effects of an IFRS-based taxation on corporate tax burdens in different EU member states, we estimate firms’ tax equity using notes on income taxes in IFRS financial statements of companies listed in Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands. The difference between estimated tax equity and IFRS-equity, adjusted for the effect resulting from the recognition of deferred taxes, shows the effect of using IFRS as a tax base on the present value of corporate taxes. We find that estimated tax equity is mostly lower than IFRS-equity, indicating that an IFRS-based taxation would often increase the present value of corporate taxes. The median of estimated tax equity is 5.6 % (Austria), 6.4 % (Germany) and 9.0 % (The Netherlands) below IFRS-equity. However, an IFRS-based taxation does not always induce higher equity as often argued in the literature. In 307 of 1,113 totally analysed firm-years, estimated tax equity exceeds IFRS-equity. To find a further estimation for the effects of tax base reforms we also approximate the total stock of unused tax losses and the amount of useable tax losses. We find that deferred tax assets for unused tax losses are depreciated to a substantial extent.     

Die Abgeltungsteuer auf Kursgewinne und der Steuerstundungseffekt in der Unternehmensbewertung

In Germany capital gains have to be taxed independently of the holding period, according to the withholding tax regulations. Nevertheless, investors can initially avoid taxation by not realizing capital gains. Then, taxes are postponed into the future. Thereby investors can make use of an interest-free tax loan (tax deferral). Equally beneficial would be the immediate realization of negative capital gains, if this leads to reduced taxes by balancing these losses against other gains. The potential use of interest-free tax loans leads to the necessity of making assumptions on the investors?? strategy with respect to liquidation when it comes to business valuation based on discounting future after-tax payments towards investors (DCF-methods). It will be shown how much firm value depends on these assumptions by taking alternative, inflexible and flexible strategies of investors into account. Our considerations generate a lower and an upper bound for the firm value, and easier to calculate medium values. The calculations are illustrated by a numerical example which is also the subject of a comparative static analysis.     

The impact of tax uncertainty on irreversible investment

Traditional models of capital budgeting with taxes are based on deterministic tax rates and tax bases. In reality, however, there are multiple sources of tax uncertainty. Frequent tax reforms make future taxation of investments a stochastic process. Fiscal authorities and tax courts create additional tax uncertainty by interpreting current tax laws differently. Moreover, simplified models that anticipate the actual tax base incorrectly contribute to tax uncertainty as perceived by investors. I analyze the effects of stochastic taxation on investment behavior in a real options model. The investor holds an option to invest in an irreversible project with stochastic cash flows and stochastic tax payments. Pre-tax cash flows and tax payments are assumed to be correlated. Increased tax uncertainty has an ambiguous impact on investment timing. For low tax uncertainty, high cash flow uncertainty and high correlation of cash flows and tax payments, increased tax uncertainty is likely to accelerate investment. A higher expected tax payment delays investment. A higher after-tax discount rate affects investment timing ambiguously.     

考虑捐赠行为的食品动态定价策略研究

由于质量控制不当和库存过多导致的浪费是企业管理易腐食品面临的主要挑战。针对当前食品浪费严重的问题，建立考虑变质率的动态定价模型，研究捐赠行为下单一定价、两次定价与多级折扣定价三种定价策略对食品企业最优决策的影响。通过数值分析，发现捐赠行为能够提升企业利润且在多级折扣定价策略下效果更为显著，但当折扣次数较少时，单一定价策略对考虑捐赠的企业而言更优；食品最初质量、变质率、打折时间点、捐赠时间点、税收返回比率均是影响企业定价决策的重要因素；若质量差异越大，企业在多级折扣定价策略下的利润会减少，而考虑捐赠行为会使得企业利润呈上升趋势；在变质率越高时，考虑捐赠的单一定价策略会降低企业的利润，但对多级折扣定价策略下的利润影响不大；当折扣时间越接近于捐赠时间点时，基于捐赠行为的多级折扣定价策略会更优；当捐赠时间点越接近于保质期时，考虑捐赠的价格策略会优于不考虑捐赠时的价格策略。此外，研究还表明增加税收返回比率对考虑捐赠下的定价策略不一定是有利的。     

Warum Steuermoral? – Zur Explikation,Relevanz und Vorteilhaftigkeit von Steuermoral

The subject of this article is the explication, investigation of the relevance and the analysis of the advantages of tax morale. Tax morale is defined as the rejection of tax evasion and also as the rejection of special tax avoidance strategies. One argument in favor for tax morale is that tax payment can be interpreted as an elementary component of a fictitious social contract. In accordance with deontology ethics it can be traced back to the maxim “pacta sunt servanda”. Tax morale is relevant because tax evasion and tax avoidance strategies cannot be fully prevented by the tax law. The implementation of a social contract therefore requires a regulation for tax payment. The realization of a tax payment regulation would be simplified if tax payment would be beneficial. If economic income is accepted as an approximation of the financial utility from the social contract, the tax payment is absolutely beneficial in principle. In relation to the (immoral) non-payment of taxes, tax payment can be relatively advantageous or disadvantageous. One possible advantage is that (immoral) non-payment of taxes can result in punishment when detected. Another result of tax payment is the prevention of an impairment of the social contract.     

Die Bedeutung von Steuern in der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung: Eine international vergleichende empirische Analyse

Due to tax competition, high levels of national debt and promulgated tax avoidance strategies of large corporations, there is a growing interest of multiple stakeholders in taxation putting taxes on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. This study empirically examines the relevance of taxes in sustainability reports of 90 corporations listed on the Dow Jones 30, DAX 30 and FTSE 100. The findings show that 54,4?% of these corporations disclose tax information in their reports. The quality of disclosure is examined using a scoring model based on the tax-related performance indicators of theGlobal Reporting Initiative Guidelines and two standards for voluntary disclosure of tax information. In most cases, disclosure practices are of low quality. However, there are a few corporations providing high disclosure quality, especially in the UK. By analyzing the determinants of disclosure, this study demonstrates that extractive companies and companies that have been object of negative tax-related media coverage tend to disclose more information. Furthermore, corporations with higher profitability and high performance in CSR rankings rather disclose tax information.     

Discounting Compensation for Injuries

The reasons commonly given for discounting future costs and benefits are doubtfully applicable to future injuries: in particular, time preference justifies neither inter- nor intragenerational discounting. The cost of future injuries could be discounted on grounds that a smaller sum, invested at interest, is needed to pay a given level of ex post monetary compensation the further in the future the injury occurs. This effect is offset, however, by the diminishing marginal utility of compensation, if consumption is otherwise increasing. Depending on the elasticity of marginal utility of consumption, on whether consumption is growing at an optimal rate, and on the time period considered, the implicit discount rate may be positive, zero, or negative (even indefinitely so). There is no prospect of conventional discounting dealing appropriately with the cost of injuries to either future or present generations.     

Corporation taxes and the debt policy of multinational firms

This paper analyzes the impact of corporate taxes on the capital structure of foreign subsidiaries of multinational firms. The empirical investigation employs a large micro-level panel dataset of German multinationals covering 31 countries over a 10-year period. A special feature of this dataset is that it allows us to distinguish between internal and external debt financing. Our results confirm a positive effect of local tax rates on both types of debt. Moreover, while adverse local credit market conditions are found to reduce external borrowing, internal debt is increasing, supporting the view that the two channels of debt finance are substitutes. Our findings suggest that internal credit markets give rise to significant advantages and enhance multinationals?? opportunities to use debt as a tax shield.     

Nuclear Waste Management under Approaching Disaster: A Comparison of Decommissioning Strategies for the German Repository Asse II

This article compares different strategies for handling low‐ and medium‐level nuclear waste buried in a retired potassium mine in Germany (Asse II) that faces significant risk of uncontrollable brine intrusion and, hence, long‐term groundwater contamination. We survey the policy process that has resulted in the identification of three possible so‐called decommissioning options: complete backfilling, relocation of the waste to deeper levels in the mine, and retrieval. The selection of a decommissioning strategy must compare expected investment costs with expected social damage costs (economic, environmental, and health damage costs) caused by flooding and subsequent groundwater contamination. We apply a cost minimization approach that accounts for the uncertainty regarding the stability of the rock formation and the risk of an uncontrollable brine intrusion. Since economic and health impacts stretch out into the far future, we examine the impact of different discounting methods and rates. Due to parameter uncertainty, we conduct a sensitivity analysis concerning key assumptions. We find that retrieval, the currently preferred option by policymakers, has the lowest expected social damage costs for low discount rates. However, this advantage is overcompensated by higher expected investment costs. Considering all costs, backfilling is the best option for all discounting scenarios considered.     

Wird die Relevanz von Ertragsteuern für die Unternehmensrechnung nach rechtlichen oder ökonomischen Kriterien beurteilt?

Textbooks in the areas of Management Accounting, Finance and Valuation treat taxes very differently. Finance and Valuation increasingly consider tax effects. Management Accounting considers taxes only if they meet certain legal “cost” criteria. These criteria follow tax law rules, but not economic rules and primarily consider tax effects of the local business tax only. This view is also reflected in recent cost accounting regulations. We present evidence from a survey of managers and chambers of commerce, according to which practitioners’ views of whether the local business tax is a cost are heterogeneous. The majority of managers do not consider the local business tax as a cost and do not pass it on to customers. The chambers of commerce however still consider the local business tax as a cost.     

Taxes and the choice between risky and risk-free debt: on the neutrality of credit default taxation

Shareholders can decide if their corporation issues risky or risk-free debt. We identify tax systems in which the choice between risky and risk-free debt is not distorted by taxes. These credit default neutral tax systems make it possible to make capital structure decisions and firm valuations neglecting credit default risk, even after taxes. Thus credit default neutrality is a characteristic of a tax system that helps to reduce planning costs. Moreover, credit default neutrality is a necessary condition for financial neutrality of taxation. We find one class of credit default neutral taxes that preserves and another class that modifies the expected tax distribution between creditors and debtor firm. Finally, we show the influence of personal taxation on credit default neutrality.

Correction Constants for Present Values of Sub-Annual Cash Flows*

When future cash flows are expected to occur at sub-annual intervals, it is widely recognized that present value estimates are biased by the common assumption that each year's flows occur at year-end. Although a “brute force” remedy for the end-of-year (EOY) bias is well known, the method does not appear to be generally used for financial decisions. The author suggests the possible reasons for continued tolerance of EOY bias are that the present method for eliminating the bias is too cumbersome or that the amount of bias is thought to be negligible. The paper also (a) examines the current remedy, indicating several features that hamper its use, (b) presents a correction constant approach that simplifies calculation of unbiased present values for streams of sub-annual cash flows, (c) derives expressions for correction constants under two alternative assumptions about sub-annual discounting, and (d) demonstrates use of the constants and the possible decision-relevance of EOY bias by a simple capital budgeting example.     

Legitimacy theory may explain the failure of global adoption of IFRS: the case of Europe and the U.S.

We investigate the reasons why “adoption” of one set of globally accepted accounting standards is presently unachievable. By “adoption” we mean that a jurisdiction incorporates IFRS instantly as its national accounting as issued by the IASB. We state that the IASB has used a Legitimacy Theory strategy to gain acceptance of its standards by more than 120 countries across the globe but it has only gained pseudo-“adoption” (not as published by the IASB) of its standards by many countries. We contend that achieving policing and enforcement of its standards globally has proven to be empirically illusive. This legitimacy deficit may explain why convergence between the IASB and FASB is currently idle. We offer a possible solution to bridging the legitimacy gap of global adoption of IFRS. We propose an internationally respected regulator and suggest the IOSCO for this role through its participation in the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board for policing and enforcement of IFRS for cross-listed firms reporting in compliance with IFRS so that the IASB’s output legitimacy may be achieved globally.     

A POLITICAL ECONOMY THEORY OF PARTIAL DECENTRALIZATION

We revisit the classic problem of tax competition in the context of federal nations, and derive a positive theory of partial decentralization. A capital poor median voter chooses to use redistributive capital taxes to provide public goods. The expectation of high capital taxes, however, results in a small capital stock which lowers returns to redistribution. The median voter therefore wants to commit to a lower level of capital taxes. She does so by setting a partial degree of decentralization in the Constitution. The equilibrium degree of decentralization balances the positive effect of tax competition on capital taxes with the loss in redistribution that results. We show that the degree of decentralization is nonmonotonic in inequality, increasing in the redistributive efficiency of public good provision, and decreasing in capital productivity. When public goods are heterogeneous in their capacity to transfer funds, all voters agree that goods with high redistributive capacity should be decentralized.     

所得税劳动供给效应的实证研究

个人所得税是最为复杂的税种之一,其完善需要以充分掌握各种相关信息为条件,这其中就包括了对纳税人税收行为的认识,对劳动供给的影响是其中之一。国外的同类研究历史较长,成果较多,但国内的研究非常有限,这成了进一步完善个人所得税的一个阻碍。本文以大范围的调查问卷数据为基础,以计量分析和描述统计为手段,试图达到揭示包括性别、年龄、文化程度、地区、婚姻状况、收入、收入比和单位性质等在内的自变量对税收劳动供给弹性的不同影响的目的,以为制定与国情相符的税制提供纳税人税收行为的信息。     

Zur ?Pr?ferenzabh?ngigkeit“ von Unternehmenswerten bei pers?nlicher Besteuerung

Large parts of firm valuation literature are concerned with the calculation of the so-called ??value of debt tax shields??, i.e., the market value surplus of partly debt-financed firms over operationally identical unlevered firms. In this article, I focus on those papers which employ simple duplication techniques according to Modigliani and Miller (1958). Given asymmetric tax treatment of investments and credits, this procedure is not convincing: Since the results of computations lack uniqueness, the value of levered firms is attributed to be a matter of preferences. In contrast, I try a more profound consideration of market conditions. The results are as follows: The mentioned valuation concept is not compatible with asymmetric taxation, therefore inconsistent outcomes are possible. At most, pricing bounds can be fixed. Proper market-driven valuation by super-replication is more complex, but independent of risk preferences.     

THE EFFECTS OF INCOME TAXES ON LINEAR PROGRAMMING MODELS

For linear programming models the effects of income taxes on the optimal activity levels and the optimal values of the dual variables are considered. Neither a fixed percentage tax nor a progressive tax, based on the net pretax contribution, changes the optimal activity levels. However, the optimal dual variables are changed in value, proportional to the highest tax rate actually in effect.     

价格折扣呈现方式对促销效果影响的实证研究

本文按照信息处理这一研究框架,通过两个实验研究了基于金额和基于百分比的两种价格折扣呈现方式对消费者感知价值、购买意愿的影响及其边界条件。由于消费者头脑中处理基于百分比的价格折扣信息比处理基于金额的价格折扣信息具有更大的难度,从而消费者能够对后者产生更高的感知价值和购买意愿。又因为价格折扣计算难易程度和促销品价格是价格呈现形式对影响感知价值的两个边界条件,且价格折扣对购买意愿的影响是通过感知价值这一中介变量得以实现的,因此对于容易计算的价格折扣或者低价促销品,两种折扣形式对消费者感知价值的影响差异将消失。     

Forschungsziele der Betriebswirtschaftlichen Steuerlehre in der Kritik

In this article the understanding of the scientific functions of business taxation represented by Jochen Hundsdoerfer, Dirk Kiesewetter and Caren Sureth is critically analyzed. It is argued that hypotheses on the influence of taxes on decisions, as far as they are based on neoclassical models, are not applicable to explain the actions of tax payers. These arguments at the same time object the realization of a neutral tax system. They further contradict the realization of a tax system, which is supposed to have an impact or which avoids taxes to have an effect on decisions, provided that the criticized hypotheses are used as a basis. Fiscal law standards should rather fulfil the principle of equability of taxation. It is supposed that such fiscal law standards have an effect on decisions of tax payers, which are contradictory to the aim of an equable taxation. Therefore hypotheses from scientific experience of the actual effect of taxes on decisions must be taken into account. Hence the object of this analysis is to investigate the real influence of taxes on decisions detached from neo-classical models.