The collection of taxes is something that affects almost every entity in society and often stir up heated feelings. Recent legislative changes have been made in Sweden to adjust to regulations in the European Union. These changes included the abolishment of mandatory auditing for small companies in 2011, leading to heavy debate regarding its effect on tax reduction. Has tax reduction increased when smaller companies are no longer under as heavy surveillance as in the past or is the effect negligible? This is the question that this thesis is trying to answer, namely: is there a connection between being audited and the level of tax reduction, measured as the effective tax rate, in which small Swedish companies partake in? Most of the previous research in the field is sparse when it comes to the effect this might have in the specific conditions of the Swedish market. These studies have mainly been conducted in an American setting and focuses either on large corporations and their reduction of tax liability or attempt to connect the characteristics of auditors with tax evasion. Some studies have been made in Sweden, dealing briefly with the matter but these studies have bypassed the connection between being audited and the level of tax reduction. With tax authorities trying to find new methods to refine their profiling of companies which reduce their tax liability, the thesis fits in well as an addition to both theory and practice. We have tested this connection by conducting a semi-quasi ex post facto experiment using a dataset containing annual reports from all small companies in the restaurant industry which is seen as the industry in which companies are most prone to tax reduction according to Swedish authorities (Skatteverket, 2014, p. 60-61). The dataset has then been altered in accordance with the studies by (Guenther 2014; Bianchi et al. 2014; Dalbor et al. 2004) which included winsorizing, cropping and removal of missing data. The studies of (Bianchi et al. 2014) and (Dalbor et al. 2004) were also used to form the control variables for the study. After the dataset was deemed fit for testing, STATA was used to statistically test the data. Initial results seemed to indicate that there was a positive significant correlation between being audited and the level of tax reduction of the company. However, the results of the propensity score matching based on company size indicated that the association was heavily reliant upon company size. We thus concluded that we cannot prove a statistically significant relationship between a company being audited and its level of tax reduction in the setting of our study. The implications of this finding are several. It helps to build onto existing knowledge regarding auditing’s effect on taxes paid as well as providing the tax authorities in Sweden with an insight into what indicators to use when streamlining their operations. Furthermore, it may add new arguments to be presented in the debate that has taken place in Sweden over the recent years following the legislative changes.

This paper investigates the determinants of intra-year error in annual effective tax rate estimates, relative to the actual annual effective tax rate (“ETR Miss”) and examines whether ETR Miss contains value relevant information. I find that ETR Miss is affected by both unbiased estimation errors related to the predictability of business fundamentals and biased estimation related to varying managerial incentives within the year. Firms with higher ETR Miss exhibit less persistent pre-tax earnings and earnings components, consistent with ETR Miss containing information on earnings quality. Finally, for firms with higher ETR Miss, investors place a lower weight on accounting earnings, consistent with the market incorporating information in ETR Miss for valuation assessments.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Programa Multi-institucional e Inter-Regional de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Contábeis, 2015. / Submitted by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2015-11-06T17:53:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_VitóriaEstanislaudeAguiarFernandes.pdf: 1349020 bytes, checksum: 769634d74d5f600f75cb034778472191 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marília Freitas(marilia@bce.unb.br) on 2015-12-20T15:39:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_VitóriaEstanislaudeAguiarFernandes.pdf: 1349020 bytes, checksum: 769634d74d5f600f75cb034778472191 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-20T15:39:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_VitóriaEstanislaudeAguiarFernandes.pdf: 1349020 bytes, checksum: 769634d74d5f600f75cb034778472191 (MD5) / O objetivo deste estudo é verificar se existe associação entre a elisão fiscal e a Responsabilidade Social Corporativa. Considera-se que empresas certificadas como socialmente responsáveis possuem aversão ao risco. Como as práticas tributárias de elisão fiscal representam um risco para empresa, espera-se que empresas socialmente responsáveis apresentem menores índices de elisão tributária. Para cumprir esse objetivo foi tomado como base uma amostra de 72 empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA que participam e não participam do Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE). Para tanto, foi utilizado como forma de mensuração da elisão fiscal: Effective Tax Rate (ETR). A metodologia utilizada constitui-se em um estudo empírico-analítico, com base em uma amostra onde foram coletadas informações entre os anos de 2009 a 2013. A coleta de dados foi realizada através de consultas às Demonstrações Financeiras, notas explicativas das empresas em escopo e dados contidos na Economática®. Para tratamento dos dados, além da análise descritiva, foram realizadas análise de regressão com dados em painel. Os resultados evidenciam menores índices de ETR para as empresas do grupo de controle que é composto pelas empresas não certificadas pelo ISE. Com base na análise dos dados o apresentados é possível afirmar que as empresas socialmente responsáveis, denotadas pelo ISE, possuem uma maior tendência às práticas de elisão fiscal. Como resultado, a hipótese principal do estudo – há relação das empresas brasileiras que apresentam práticas socialmente responsáveis face à questão da elisão tributária– foi aceita comprovando haver diferença significante entre as práticas de empresas certificadas e não certificadas pelo ISE. / The objective of this study is to investigate the association between tax avoidance and corporate social responsibility. It is considered that companies certified as socially responsible have risk aversion. As the tax practices of tax avoidance pose a risk to the company, it is expected that socially responsible companies have lower rates of tax avoidance. To accomplish this goal was taken on a sample of 72 companies listed on the BM & FBOVESPA participating and not participating in the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE). Thus, it was used as a means of measuring the tax avoidance: Effective Tax Rate (ETR). The methodology used is in an empirical-analytic study, based on a sample where information was collected between the years 2009 to 2013. Data collection was conducted through consultations to the financial statements, notes to the companies in scope and data contained in Economática®. To processing of data, in addition to descriptive analysis were conducted regression analysis with panel data. The results show lower rates of ETR for companies in the control group consists of the companies not certified by ISE. Based on the analysis of the data presented it is clear that socially responsible companies, denoted by the ISE, have a greater tendency to the practices of tax avoidance. As a result, the study's hypothesis - no relationship of Brazilian companies with socially responsible practices face the issue of tax avoidance - was accepted proving there significant differences between the practices of certified companies and not certified by ISE.

資本所得所負擔的稅額之高低，以及稅負輕重對投資誘因的影響，向來為經濟學者所 關切。然而，由於有數種不同的租稅同時對資本所得課徵，而且，由於通貨膨脹、公 司融資政策、個人所得稅與公司所得稅併存、投資扣抵……等因素，使得吾人不易完 整地表達出資本所得的租稅負擔情形。 在經濟學上，往往用有效稅率（Effective tax rate）來表達資本所得的租稅負擔， 然而何謂有效稅率？在文獻上所討論的有效稅率，可大略地區分為兩大類：平均有效 稅率（Average effective tax rate）與邊際有效稅率（marginal effective tax - rate）。前者是指過去的年度裡，平均每一元的資本所得，負擔多少的稅額；後者是 指未來新增加一單位投資，其賺取的資本所得須負擔多少稅額。平均有效稅率適合用 來表達資本所得過去的稅負情形，但不適於用來衡量租稅對投資誘因的影響；而邊際 有效稅率表達出投資計劃之稅前報酬率，與資金提供者的稅後報酬率之差距，故適合 用來衡量租稅對投資誘因的影響。 本文鑒於一般文獻在討論有效稅率時，往往不加以定義所討論的究竟是平均還是邊際 有效稅率，以致常導致誤解，甚至有部份文獻誤用平均有效稅率，來探討租稅對投資 誘因的影響，因此，本文先對有效稅率一詞的意義，予以釐清；繼而討論各種有效稅 率的正確用途，並且說明邊際有效稅率，與投資誘因之間的關係；最後，本文也嚐試 估計我國資本所得的邊際有效稅率。

This thesis empirically studies the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate tax avoidance. Based on a sample of 3304 observations between 2002 and 2014, I find that the CSR score of companies is negatively related to their effective tax rate. This indicates that on average, responsible companies are more involved in tax avoidance activities compared to less responsible companies. This result is robust against different sets of control variables. The results of this thesis are contrary towards previous research, where most studies find a negative relation between CSR and tax avoidance. In addition, I examine how four dimensions of CSR are related to corporate tax avoidance and I find that economic performance and environmental performance are positive significant related towards tax avoidance. This indicates that shareholder and client loyalty, as well as resource and emission reduction, relate to a higher extent of corporate tax avoidance.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the Chinese taxation literature by researching effective tax rate (ETR), marginal tax rate (MTR) and implicit tax in particular. These areas have been addressed for a number of years within the developed market context, whereas the same research for companies in developing countries is largely non-existent in Western literature. The first topic is the ETR and MTR analysis. The ETR analysis offers an overview of the actual tax burden for listed companies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), together with the Statutory Tax Rate (STR) analysis, which incorporates the tax structure aspect of tax preferences from 1994 to 2006. In 2002, the State Council stopped unauthorised corporate tax rebate from local government and 2002 became a breaking point of the corporate tax analysis. The ETR and STR analyses reveal that companies benefitted widely from tax preferences before 2002 regardless of their industry or region. However, after 2002, the ETRs increased significantly overall and the industrial and regional ETR differences are much more significant. The tax preferential industries and regions’ companies are still in the lower ETR and STR range, but the non-tax preferential companies’ ETRs and STR increased significantly after 2002. This evidences the effectiveness of Chinese tax preference policies. The MTR estimations are the first Chinese company specific MTR estimations. The MTRs were estimated from 1995 to 2002 and the MTRs results are generally consistent with ETR results, except that the MTR estimations jointly depend on the company Net Operating Loss (NOL) occurrences, income and STR. The second topic is the determinants of ETR. An alternative view of ETR determinants is proposed. It incorporates the accounting-tax conformity theory and identifies a tax rate preference as the new ETR determinant variable to fit the Chinese taxation context. Five explanatory variables are hypothesized in associating company characteristics after controlling the company location, industry and sample period dummy variables. These explanatory variables are tax rate preference, non-operating expenses, investment gain, provision for impairment and government ownership. The ETR determinants model is also examined by OLS regression (cross-sectional), and fixed-effects and random effects regression (panel data analysis). The results show that all of the explanatory variables are statistically significant coefficients with expected signs. The results also demonstrate that the proposed ETR determinant model is superior to previous determinant models. The third topic is implicit tax research. The results are evidence of the existence of implicit tax at the corporate level. The relationships between the company Pre-tax Return of Equity (PTROE) and tax preference variables and other control variables are also examined. The results demonstrate that there is a negative relationship between PTROE and tax rate preference when considering the companies aggregately in a large scale; and there is a positive relationship between PTROE and income related tax preference when considering the companies individually. The contradictory results indicate that in reality, the imperfect market conditions impede the realisation of implicit tax at the individual company level.

In this research, I present the analysis of the relationship between credit rating and tax avoidance. I found out that the lower the cash effective tax rate the stronger the association with credit rating. Sensitivity analysis showed that the probability of falling into more favorable credit rating category is increases and the probability of falling into less favorable category decreases if cash effective tax rate increases at least by 1%. Also, the negative association between book-tax differences and credit rating found.

This diploma thesis deals with taxation of financial institutions with focus on banking sector in the Czech Republic. The aim is to analyze effective tax rate of the Czech banks, define issues that might have influenced the evolution of the effective tax rate and make comparison with effective tax rate of other Czech corporations and European banks. The first chapter characterizes financial institutions, development of taxation of the financial sector and briefly describes the global financial crises. In the next chapter specifics of the value added tax and corporate income tax are described from the point of view of the financial institutions according to the Czech law followed by description of the financial transactions tax and financial activities tax. In the third chapter is analyzed effective tax rate of the Czech banks for period from 2007 to 2014 based on data gained from annual reports of the analyzed banks. Data for comparison of the effective rates of Czech and European banks were gained from the database S&P Capital IQ. In the conclusion of the thesis are analyzed reasons that might have caused changes in the effective tax rate in the banking sector.

This work deals with tax wedges (effective tax rates) for businesses in the Czech Republic. The goal is to use a methodology for measuring the tax wedges for analysis of tax burden on particular business in period 2004 to 2008. Effective tax rate particular firm is compared with the effective tax rates of enterprises in the Czech Republic and the European Union. To achieve that goal literature review, analysis and comparison method are used. The results of the analysis showed that the particular firm had at the beginning of the period a very high tax burden compared to the statutory tax rate. During the period, however, the effective tax rate of the company significantly reduced and thereby was closer to statutory tax rate. The company had a lot of nondeductible expenses which most significantly contributed to the high tax burden. Tax on corporate income for companies is included in the costs, so the company should try to minimize this expense and thereby reduce the effective tax rate.

This thesis aims to compare the tax burden on companies in terms of corporate tax rate in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Comparison of taxation between those countries is not only important in international statistics, but also because of the high impact of the tax burden on corporate decision-making on the allocation of investment. The rate of taxation of companies will be compared in two ways, based on evaluation of differences in tax legislation and through comparison of the effective tax rates. The thesis also includes theory concerning the tax burden indicators and their calculation, including the observed effective tax rate. The data used to calculate this indicator of tax burden were obtained from the Amadeus database. Based on the results of the two comparisons, it will be evaluated, in which country is the corporate income tax more favourable for the taxpayers.