公司避税活动对会计师事务所变更的影响

Effect of Corporate Tax Avoidance Activities on the Change of Accounting Firm

利用我国A股非金融类上市公司2009~2017年数据,同时用会计-税收差异和经应计项目调整的会计-税收差异两个指标度量公司的税收激进度,进而检验客户税收激进度对审计师变更的影响,结果发现,在控制了盈余管理等因素后,税收激进度与会计师事务所变更的可能性之间呈显著正向关系,这表明,审计师会将客户过于激进的避税活动视为高风险的标志,从而提高审计师变更的可能性。进一步研究发现,公司内部控制质量和产权性质可以缓解税收激进度对审计师变更的影响。这一研究可以进一步丰富审计师对客户避税活动的反应的相关文献,并可以从审计的角度拓展公司避税行为后果的文献。

Using the data of A-share listed non-financial companies for the period of 2009-2017, this paper examines the impact of tax aggressiveness (measured by book-tax difference and book-tax difference adjusted by total accruals) on auditor changes. The result shows that after controlling factors which can influence auditor changes such as earnings management, there is a significant positive relationship between tax aggressiveness and the possibility of auditor changes. Above result indicates that auditors regard excessively aggressive tax avoidance activities as a sign of risk, and accordingly increase the possibility of auditor change. Further tests demonstrate that the company's internal control quality and property rights can alleviate the impact of tax aggressiveness on auditor changes. This paper can further enrich the literature on auditors' responses to customer's tax avoidance activities, and is helpful to extend the understanding of economic consequence of tax avoidance behavior.