The Impact of IRS Audits on Tax Avoidance of U.S. Multinational Firms

美國政府稅務查核對美國跨國公司避稅行為之影響

鄭羽婷(Yu-Ting Cheng) ； 高偉娟(Wei-Chuan Kao) ； 林世銘(Su-Ming Lin)

《財務金融學刊》 Volume 27 Issue 3 (2019/09) Pp. 41-73

https://doi.org/10.6545/JFS.201909_27(3).0002

Abstracts

We examine the effect of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits on U.S. multinational companies (U.S. MNCs). We find the IRS audits positively affect U.S. MNCs' worldwide effective tax rate, suggesting that U.S. MNCs conduct less tax avoidance when expecting more IRS audits. Additionally, we find the IRS audits deter MNCs' domestic tax avoidance more than foreign tax avoidance. These results are robust using alternative IRS audits and tax avoidance variables. We also find the IRS audits reduce U.S. MNCs' income shifting. The evidence that the IRS audits reduce tax avoidance and income shifting remains consistent after using two-stage regressions.

Keywords

Tax avoidance ； IRS tax audits ； multinational companies ； income shifting

Parallel abstracts

本文探討美國政府稅務查核對美國跨國公司避稅行為之影響，發現稅務查核提高跨國公司的有效稅率，表示當跨國公司預期較多的稅務查核時，將減少避稅行為。本文亦發現稅務查核減少境內的避稅較境外避稅多，而且能減少跨國公司的所得移轉。無論採用其他的稅務查核與公司避稅變數，或採用二階迴歸式獲致之結果仍與原結果一致。

Parallel keywords

公司避稅 ； 稅務查核 ； 跨國公司 ； 所得移轉

References

Allingham, Michael, and Agnar Sandmo, 1972, Income tax evasion: A theoretical analysis, Journal of Public Economics 1, 323-338.

Alm, James, Betty Jackson, and Michael McKee, 1992, Estimating the determinants of taxpayer compliance with experimental data, National Tax Journal 45, 107-114.

Armstrong, Chris, Jennifer Blouin, and David Larcker, 2012, The incentives for tax planning, Journal of Accounting and Economics 53, 391-411.

Bankman, Joseph, 2004, An academic’s view of the tax shelter battle, in Henry J. Aaron and Joel Slemrod, eds.: The Crisis in Tax Administration (Brookings Institute Press, Washington, D.C.).

Bergin, Tom, 2012, How Starbucks avoids U.K. taxes, Reuters, October 15 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/15/us-britain-starbucks-tax-idUSBRE89E0EX20121015).