Drawing upon media agenda-setting theory and previous studies in organizational impression management, this paper empirically investigates the influence of tax avoidance news on corporate tax reporting. This study is based on the pronounced discontinuity in the amount of news articles related to tax avoidance in the United Kingdom over two periods (2010-2011 and 2012-2013). A difference-in-differences design is employed in order to enable a comparison of the media effects on those firms that have been reported in tax avoidance news versus those without media attention. Using a sample of annual reports of UK FTSE 100 companies across the period 2010 to 2013, I test the impact of tax avoidance news on quality and quantity of tax disclosure. The results suggest that the recent increase in media attention on tax avoidance does not stimulate firms to improve the quality and the quantity of tax disclosure in their corporate reporting. Rather, firms can be discouraged from discussing the most relevant tax items in their reporting, as shown in the case of financial firms which were the subject of the largest amount of tax avoidance news. (author's abstract) / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

Purpose : The aim of this paper is to examine how companies which are subject to criticism for their tax avoidance strategies respond to such criticism by analyzing tax related disclosures in organizations’ annual reports as well as corporate social responsibility reports. Design/Methodology/Approach: A qualitative research design was applied using content analysis on annual and corporate social responsibility reports which were collected from the companies’ archives. The reports were selected in terms of the time that the tax avoidance scandal was exposed on media. Therefore, a three-year timeframe of reports was studied, one year before the scandal, the year of the scandal and one year after. The interpretation of the results was done using legitimacy theory. Findings : Three different disclosure strategies have been identified, namely accepting, challenging and influential strategies, which companies use in different ways A variation of responses to media criticism among the companies have been observed which indicates that there is not a framework of answering to media criticism for tax avoidance strategies. The study also illustrates that there is lack of disclosure strategies within the corporate social responsibility reports. Limitations/Implications: The data were collected only from annual reports and CSR reports; other corporate releases were not taken into consideration. The selected companies include one European company and five U.S. companies Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the understanding on how multinationals who are key actors use different response strategies for aggressive tax management as well as provides important information to tax administrators. Furthermore, a theoretical basis on linking corporate response strategies to media criticism based on a legitimacy framework is provided, which could facilitate managers in dealing with the public criticism when their legitimacy is threatened.

Against the background of increasing tension between the need for additional disclosure and an information overload in financial statements, this study investigates the relevance of specific tax accounting information in an experimental setting. Participants make judgments on the financial performance, investment attractiveness and tax position of the firm, in absence or in presence of detailed tax information in the other comprehensive income statement. Our results do not support the notion that such deferred tax information has an effect on the judgment of experts, as long as the amounts of deferred tax are normal. However, when the detailed amounts of deferred tax are abnormally high, judgment differs significantly. Our result is important for standard setters, as they may consider further developing guidance in standards (such as IAS 1 and IAS 12) and in the Practice Statement for how to judge materiality of information, in accordance with the materiality principle set forth in IAS 1.31. By doing so, the risk of information overload can be reduced. Our study thus contributes to the current debate on the extent of disclosure. Our results are novel and the method used allows for the isolation of effects and the identification of causal relationships. / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series