创新导向减税会触发企业“寻扶持”行为吗?——基于研发费用加计扣除政策调整的准自然实验

Will innovation-oriented tax cuts trigger enterprises’support-seeking behavior?A quasi-natural experiment based on the policy adjustment of additional deductions for R&D expenses

作为普适性创新导向政策,研发费用加计扣除的激励效果一直是学术界的重要议题之一。聚焦2018年研发费用加计扣除比例从50%提高到75%这一政策调整,综合集约边际和广延边际的视角,以2016—2020年沪深A股上市公司为研究对象,采用倾向得分匹配双重差分模型(PSM-DID)研究政策调整对企业R&D操纵行为的影响。结果显示,对于持续享受政策的企业,此次政策调整导致其虚增R&D支出进行向上R&D操纵的“寻扶持”行为更为严重(集约边际)。机制检验表明,加计扣除政策调整主要通过提高企业实际享受优惠幅度、放松企业申请监管环境而刺激其R&D操纵。进一步研究发现,对于政策调整前异常性R&D支出持续为正的企业来说,扣除比例提高后其R&D操纵程度更为明显。此外,此次优惠幅度提高吸引了部分企业开始申报,首次享受政策的企业也表现出类似的“寻扶持”行为(广延边际)。结论有助于思辨性评估研发费用加计扣除政策效果,启示相关部门引导企业注重R&D成本管理,使政策发挥最大效用。

As a universal innovation-oriented policy,the incentive effect of additional deductions for R&D expenses has always been an important issue in academic circles.Taking A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2016 to 2020 as the research object,this paper focuses on the policy adjustment in the year 2018,which increased the deduction ratio for R&D expenses from 50%to 75%.We test the effect of the policy adjustment on enterprises’R&D manipulation using a PSM-DID model,considering both the intensive margin and extensive margin.The results show that,for persistent claimants,the policy adjustment exacerbates upward R&D manipulation,as shown by increased abnormal R&D expenditures(intensive margin),which indicates their support-seeking behavior.The mechanism test shows that the increase in enterprises’actual tax preferential degree and the relaxation of tax supervision for enterprise applications due to the adjustment of the additional deduction policy mainly induce enterprises’R&D manipulation.Further,the R&D manipulation behavior of enterprises with positive abnormal R&D expenditures even before the policy adjustment becomes more significant after the deduction ratio raise.In addition,after the increase of the pre-tax deduction ratio in 2018,more enterprises are encouraged to claim this tax incentive,and these first claimants also show similar support-seeking behavior(extensive margin).The conclusions of this paper contribute to speculative thinking on the policy effects of additional deductions for R&D expenses and can aid relevant departments in efforts to guide enterprises to pay attention to R&D cost management to maximize policy effectiveness.