Determinants and Market Reaction of Assets Impairment in Taiwan

認列資產減損時點與金額之決定因素及其市場反應

謝宛庭(Wan-Ting Hsieh) ； 吳清在(C. Tsing-Zai Wu)

《中華會計學刊》 6卷1期 (2005/10) Pp. 59-95

https://doi.org/10.6538/TAR.2005.0601.03

摘要

長久以來，台灣之一般公認會計準則對企業之固定資產係以歷史成本減除累計折舊入帳，在消費者物價指數累積上升達25%時固定資產得以「資產重估」方式來反應資產之增值，但在35號公報發佈前，台灣企業對資產之會計處理，從未考慮資產可能發生之價值減損，導致財務報表「只能上調不能下調」之不對稱情況，嚴重扭曲財務報表之真實性，無法充分反應技術進步、景氣循環等造成資產價值之快速變化。此種無法充分反映長期資產價值之會計處理方式，久為會計界所詬病。為與國際會計準則接軌並提高財務報表之資訊透明度，中華民國會計研究發展基金會財務會計準則委員會乃參考國際會計準則第36號公報及美國會計準則第121號公報與第142號公報，於2004年7月發布財務會計準則第35號公報《資產減損之會計處理準則》，對會計年度開始日在2005年1月1日（含）以後之財務報表適用之，但得提前適用。本文首先探討台灣上市櫃公司選擇適用35號公報之「時點」之決定因素，根據文獻研究歸納為「報導動機」與「營運因素」兩大領域。實證結果發現：台灣上市櫃公司是否提前採用35號公報主要是受到公司管理當局「一次清洗」（take a big bath）之「報導動機」，以及長期資產回收性（應計基礎下及現金基礎下）等「營運因素」之影響。基於「報導動機」與「營運因素」，本文進一步探討台灣上市櫃公司認列資產減損「金額」之決定因素，實證結果發現：（一）提前適用35號公報之公司，其所認列資產減損之金額大小僅受到公司管理當局之報導動機（洗大澡、盈餘平穩化、公司高階管理當局異動）所影響；（二）準時適用35號公報之公司，其所認列資產減損之金額大小除受公司管理當局之報導動機（盈餘平穩化、公司高階管理當局異動）所影響外，亦受到企業營運因素（報酬衡量指標、銷貨成長性）之影響，對準時適用35號公報之公司而言，其所認列資產減損之金額大小不受屬報導動機之洗大澡動機之影響。另外，本文亦探討不同類型之資產減損金額之決定因素，研究發現公司管理當局之盈餘管理行為（洗大澡及盈餘平穩化）會影響到公司認列商譽以外之其他類型資產（長期投資、固定資產、無形資產及閒置資產）減損之金額，但公司認列商譽減損損失並未受到公司管理當局盈餘管理之行為所影響，本文推論可能係因35號公報規定已認列之商譽減損損失不能迴轉，故公司管理當局不會透過認列商譽減損損失來進行盈餘管理。最後，本文探討公司宣告認列資產減損之股票市場反應，實證結果發現（一）於2004年第四季年報（經會計師簽證）中提前適用35號公報之公司宣告認列之資產減損時，資產減損金額有顯著之負面之市場反應，然而，於2005年第一季季報（未經會計師簽證）準時適用35號公報之公司宣告認列之資產減損時，資產減損金額卻無統計顯著之負面之市場反應；（二）與年報同時發佈之第四季不計資產減損之異常盈餘無顯著之市場反應（此與Francis et al. 1996之實證結果一致）；但第一季不計入資產減損之異常盈餘則有顯著之市場反應。關於此點，本研究除Francis et al.之解釋外，並增加台灣情況之解釋，亦即台灣年報申報日與第一季季報申報日期相同所致。美國證管會規定美國公開發行公司年報與季報申報日期不同（年報須於3月31日前，第一季季報須於4月15日前申報），而台灣證期局規定台灣公開發行公司之去年年報與今年第一季季報皆須同時於今年4月30日申報，因此，在4月底年報所揭露去年第四季盈餘資訊市場已經知曉，本年第一季未預期盈餘才真正有資訊內涵，實證結果反映此項事實。

關鍵字

資產減損 ； 台灣財務會計準則第35號公報 ； 決定因素 ； 市場反應

並列摘要

On July 1, 2004, Taiwan's Financial Accounting Standards Committee of the Accounting Research and Development Foundation issued SFAS No. 35, Accounting for the Impairment of Assets. This accounting standard came effective in the financial year ending after December 31, 2005, with early application encouraged. Taiwan's SFAS No. 35 provides for accounting for assets impairment conservatively by recognizing impairment loss to reflect the market value of long-lived assets but not the unrealized gains of assets. SFAS No. 35 will affect accounting earnings, carrying amounts of long-lived assets, and, supposedly, the stock prices for listed firms in Taiwan. This paper examines determinants of assets impairment and its market reaction. First, we examine the determinants of early adoption of Taiwan's SFAS No. 35 for firms listed in the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the GreTai Securities Market. We investigate the motivation of adoption of assets impairment accounting in reporting purposes and operational purposes per literature. Our empirical results show that determinants for early adopters of Taiwan's SFAS No. 35 are the taking a ”big bath” purpose (the reporting motivation) and factors reflecting the accrual-based and cashflow-based recoverability of long-lived assets, such as changes in sales and changes in operational cash flows (operational motivations). Secondly, we examine factors affecting the ”amounts” of assets impairment in both reporting and operational perspectives. Our empirical results show the following: (1) For early adopters, the amounts of assets impairments are associated with only reporting motivations (the taking a big-bath purpose, the income smoothing purpose, and the changes in top management). (2) For non-early adopters, the amounts of assets impairment are associated with, not only the reporting perspective (the income smoothing purpose, the changes in top management), but also the firms' operational perspective (such as stock returns and sales growth). When analyzing the ”amounts” of assets impairment losses for five different types of assets (long-term investments, fixed assets, identifiable intangible assets, goodwill, and other assets), we find that impairment loss for goodwill is less likely to be associated with reporting motivation, probably because restoration of previously recognized impairment loss for goodwill is prohibited under SAFS No. 35. Finally, we examine market reactions to announcements of assets impairment in Taiwan. Our empirical tests of the shareholder wealth effects of impairment announcements reveal that, (1) the stock market reacts significantly and negatively to fourth-quarter impairment losses, but not to fourth-quarter unexpected earnings for early adopters of Taiwan's SFAS No. 35; and (2) the stock market does not react significantly to first-quarter impairment losses, but does react thusly to first-quarter unexpected earnings for all listed firms. The latter is consistent with Francis et al. (1996). In addition to Francis's explanations, we further interpret this result in terms of the same reporting dates for annual report and first-quarter report in Taiwan. Unlike the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, which requires public firms to submit their 10-K on May 31 and their first-quarter 10-Q on April 15, Taiwan's Securities and Future Bureau (SFB) requires that annual report and first-quarter report be submitted on the same day (April 30) by public firms in Taiwan. Simultaneous announcements of annual report and first-quarter report may further explain our empirical results: the unexpected fourth-quarter earnings reflected in the previous year's annual report has no the information content at the end of the first quarter since information may have already been reflected in the beginning of the year. However, as expected, unexpected first-quarter earnings do have information content when they are announced. For assets impairment, on the contrary, investors react to the CPA-audited impairment losses in the annual report while no statistical evidence shows that investors react to CPA-reviewed first-quarter impairment losses.

並列關鍵字

Assets Impairment ； Taiwan's SFAS No. 35 ； Determinants ； Market Reaction

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