Evidence on Book-tax Differences and Disclosure Quality Based on the Notes to the Financial Statements

The German Accounting Law Modernization Act (BilMoG) represents a change in paradigm with regard to the traditionally close relationship between financial and tax accounting in Germany. At the same time, requirements on the disclosure of deferred taxes were revised considerably. We make use of these new disclosure provisions to disaggregate firms deferred tax position and to analyze the components of temporary book-tax differences that add to the reporting gap in Germany. To this end, we apply a unique dataset of hand-collected information from individual financial statements for the fiscal year 2010. We find considerable differences between financial and tax accounting and observe that temporary book-tax differences are mainly associated with mandatory differences in accounting for provisions. The scope and quality of tax-related disclosures vary substantially and the overall disclosure quality is low. In order to identify the determinants of the heterogeneity of disclosure quality, we construct an index for voluntary and mandatory disclosure of deferred tax information and conduct multivariate analyses to explain firms disclosure decisions. We show that the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities on the face of the balance-sheet is sig-nificantly and positively related with disclosure quality in the notes to the financial statements. Further, our results suggest that larger firms are more likely to have high-quality tax disclosures and that high implementation costs could also explain the ob-served shortfalls in disclosure quality. Moreover, we find that different reporting incen-tives might apply if reporting on losses is assessed in isolation. We use these insights to derive implications for the discussion about whether and how to reform disclosure re-quirements under German GAA

Country-by-country reporting : tension between transparency and tax planning

Aggressive tax planning efforts of highly profitable multinational companies (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)) have become the subject of intense public debate in recent years. As a response, several international initiatives and parties have called for more transparency in financial reporting, especially by means of a Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR). In line with that, the OECD and the European Commission have recently presented proposals for a comprehensive disclosure of country-specific tax -related information for companies in all industry sectors. In our paper, we demonstrate that neither consolidated or individual financial statements nor other existing data sources seem to be an appropriate basis for providing such country-specific information. Instead, it would be necessary to define detailed and harmonized definitions and regulations to ensure comparability. The discussion on benefits and costs of a CbCR reveals that benefits (at least partially) lack a theoretical foundation and, overall, do not seem to outweigh associated costs. This holds true, in particular, since current tax planning activities are mainly based on the legal exploitation of gaps and loopholes in national and international tax law. Instead, we argue that tax legislators should limit profit shiting by enforcing tax rules and by closing gaps in tax law. In particular, we call for more tightened and standardized transfer pricing regulations and thin-cap rules to be adopted at an international level

Book-tax conformity and reporting behavior : a quasi-experiment

We examine how a comprehensive change in book-tax conformity affects firms’ reporting behavior. To this end, we exploit a Reform Act as a quasi-natural experiment which implied a decrease in book-tax conformity in Germany in 2010. In particular, this reform allows firms to exercise tax accounting options independently from financial accounting. Our study builds on a unique dataset of linked individual financial statements and actual tax return data. It covers roughly 150 incorporated firms for the years 2008 to 2012. Exploiting the exceptional change in conformity, we contribute to the ongoing debate on the impact of booktax conformity. Our results show that profitable companies, which have a clear tax sheltering incentive, actually use the newly introduced reporting leeway to manage taxable income downwards. This is especially attributable to companies exploiting favorable tax depreciation rules. Moreover, we find larger opportunistic tax reporting responses for small companies with less complex and predominantly domestic group structures. In addition, we observe that a decrease in book-tax conformity induces a decrease in the general persistence of taxable income, but at the same time gives rise to higher financial earnings persistence. This corroborates our finding of increased tax sheltering activity in post reform years

Transparency in Financial Reporting: Is Country-by-Country Reporting suitable to combat international profit shifting?

Aggressive tax planning efforts of highly profitable multinational companies (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)) have recently become the subject of intense public debate. As a response, several international initiatives and parties have called for more transparency in financial reporting, especially by means of a country-specific reporting of certain tax information (Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR)). In our paper, we demonstrate that neither consolidated nor individual financial accounts seem to be an appropriate platform to provide such country-specific information and, therefore, that CbCR cannot be based on extended financial accounting standards. Moreover, we argue that even separate CbCR templates do not prevent multinationals from profit shifting, since their common tax minimization strategies are mainly based on the legal exploitation of gaps and loopholes in national and international tax law. In that regard, we show that expected costs for CbCR would exceed expected benefits and therefore contend that CbCR cannot be regarded as a convincing measure to combat international profit shifting. Instead, we argue that tax legislators should limit profit shifting by enforcing national and international tax rules and by closing gaps in tax law. In particular, we call for more tightened and standardized transfer pricing regulations to be adopted at an international level

The implications of book-tax tifferences : a meta-analysis

Over the last decade, a large body of tax accounting literature on the association between book-tax conformity (BTC)/book-tax differences (BTD) and firms’ opportunistic reporting behavior has emerged. Yet, existing empirical evidence on the questions whether increased book-tax conformity actually reduces Earnings Management (EM) and/or Tax Sheltering (TS) and whether book-tax differences are really indicative of such opportunistic reporting behavior is not yet clear. We therefore conduct a meta-analysis aimed at identifying the sources of heterogeneity in primary studies and at providing a consensus estimate with respect to the sign and the statistical significance level for the examined association. Our qualitative literature review reveals that major sources of heterogeneity in the study design include differences in the proxies for EM and TS and in the measures used to determine BTD and BTC. Our meta-regression results show that BTD are indeed indicative of opportunistic reporting behavior, and even more so of EM. These results are, however, weaker for studies that determine BTD only roughly as the difference between book and estimated taxable income instead of using more specific BTD proxies. Moreover, examining actual BTD computed from tax returns instead of only approximating these from financial statements strongly increases the effects. Hence, efforts taken to accurately determine BTD seem to be worth wile when it comes to the explanatory power for opportunistic reporting. Furthermore, our results suggest a negative association between book-tax conformity and EM/TS, which we interpret as an indicator for higher conformity indeed being effective in reducing aggressive reporting

Das Eckpunktepapier und der Referentenentwurf des BMF zur Erbschaftsteuer: Auswirkungen auf die effektive Erbschaftsteuerbelastung in Deutschand und internationaler Vergleich. Erweiterung des Länderindex 2014

Zum wiederholten Mal hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht das Erbschaftsteuergesetz für verfassungs-widrig erklärt. In seinem Urteil vom 17.12.20141 entschied das Gericht, dass die derzeit geltenden Regelungen zur Verschonung betrieblichen Vermögens zu weitreichend sind. Der Gesetzgeber wurde aufgefordert, bis zum 30.6.2016 eine neue Gesetzesgrundlage zu schaffen. Ende Februar 2015 hat das Bundesministerium der Finanzen (BMF) zunächst ein Eckpunktepapier zur Reform der Verschonungsregelungen vorgelegt, welches durch Veröffentlichung eines Referentenent-wurfs zur gesetzlichen Anpassung der Erbschaftsteuer am 2.6.2015 weiter konkretisiert bzw. modifi-ziert wurde. Beide Reformentwürfe adressieren die vom BVerfG monierten Aspekte und beinhalten Vorschläge zu einer Neugestaltung der betrieblichen Verschonungsregelungen. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist es Ziel dieses Beitrags, die Auswirkungen der beiden Reformkonzepte auf die erbschaftsteuerliche Belastung von Unternehmen in Deutschland zu bestimmen und mit dem gegenwärtigen Belastungsniveau in Deutschland sowie in anderen ausgewählten Ländern zu verglei-chen. Dabei wird an die Zahlen und Ausführungen angeknüpft, die im Rahmen des Länderindex der Stiftung Familienunternehmen2 für das Jahr 2014 bestimmt wurden. Zusätzlich werden die Werte für den Subindex Steuern unter Berücksichtigung der diskutierten Reformszenarien neu berechnet. Auch eine qualitative Analyse der erbschaftsteuerlichen Regelungen zur Behandlung von Betriebsvermögen im internationalen Vergleich soll im Rahmen dieses Aufsatzes erneut aufgegriffen werden, um etwai-ge Trends und Entwicklungen bei der erbschafsteuerlichen Praxis zahlreicher Länder zu identifizieren. Für ausführlichere Erläuterungen zur Methodik und zu weiteren erbschafsteuerlichen Regelungspunk-ten wird indes auf den Länderindex 2014 verwiesen

The use of sme tax incentives in the European Union

This paper discusses the impact and the appropriateness of tax incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union. First, we provide a survey of implemented tax incentives specifically targeted at SMEs in the 28 EU Member States. Building hereon, we measure the impact of these regimes on the effective tax burdens of targeted companies. We find that SME tax incentives are a commonly used measure among European policy makers. The vast majority of regimes, however, only marginally reduce the tax liability of SMEs. If major reliefs are available, they mostly stem from special tax rates whereas tax credits and special allowance play a minor role. In the second main part of the analysis, we examine the arguments potentially justifying the usage of SME tax incentives. As a main result, small firms per se do not create more jobs and innovations nor do they face insurmountable financing constraints. The existence of market failures commonly associated with SMEs – and possibly warranting the use of SME tax incentives – can therefore not be confirmed. Instead, disproportionate tax compliance costs for small entities constitute the most compelling argument for a special tax treatment. These compliance costs can most appropriately be addressed by administrative reliefs. Special tax rates, tax credits and allowances, in contrast, are not only inefficient but also ineffective in this regard. Instead of improving the neutrality of the overall tax system, the latter are likely to add further distortions and unnecessary complexity. Altogether, the focus of policy - makers should thus shift from providing discriminatory incentives to the design of a generally neutral and simple tax system, which would benefit small as well as large enterprises

Evidence on book-tax differences and disclosure quality based on the notes to the financial statements

The German Accounting Law Modernization Act (BilMoG) represents a change in paradigm with regard to the traditionally close relationship between financial and tax accounting in Germany. At the same time, requirements on the disclosure of deferred taxes were revised considerably. We make use of these new disclosure provisions to disaggregate firms’ deferred tax position and to analyze the components of temporary book-tax differences that add to the reporting gap in Germany. To this end, we apply a unique dataset of hand-collected information from individual financial statements for the fiscal year 2010. We find considerable differences between financial and tax accounting and observe that temporary book-tax differences are mainly associated with mandatory differences in accounting for provisions. The scope and quality of tax-related disclosures vary substantially and the overall disclosure quality is low. In order to identify the determinants of the heterogeneity of disclosure quality, we construct an index for voluntary and mandatory disclosure of deferred tax information and conduct multivariate analyses to explain firms’ disclosure decisions. We show that the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities on the face of the balance-sheet is significantly and positively related with disclosure quality in the notes to the financial statements. Further, our results suggest that larger firms are more likely to have high-quality tax disclosures and that high implementation costs could also explain the observed shortfalls in disclosure quality. Moreover, we find that different reporting incentives might apply if reporting on losses is assessed in isolation. We use these insights to derive implications for the discussion about whether and how to reform disclosure re-quirements under German GAAP