社会信任、纳税遵从与纳税负担

Societal Trust,Firm Tax Compliance,and Tax Burden

本文通过固定效应模型对2004~2016年我国沪深主板的上市公司进行实证分析,发现社会信任水平与企业纳税遵从度呈现显著正相关关系。作为非正式制度的社会信任可促进正式制度发挥监管职能,即当企业面临的正式监督机制较弱时,社会信任对纳税遵从的促进作用更加明显。此外,本文还发现尽管社会信任会促进企业纳税遵从,但前者并不会实际增加企业税负负担,其原因在于社会信任对税收优惠的促进作用能够有效缓解企业的实际税负。这一发现对于构建诚信社会以及强调三次分配中税收发挥收入再分配的政策导向作用具有重要的现实意义:社会信任可以作为一种非正式制度安排规范税收征管过程中的企业纳税行为,并提升税务部门在税收返还等收入分配过程中的政策投放精准度,从而引导税收助力高质量发展和共同富裕的实现。

This paper examines the relation between the level of societal trust in a region and corporate tax behaviors in China.Using data from Chinese listed firms over 2004-2016,we document that societal trust is significantly and positively associated with tax compliance.We then explore the effects of both firm-level and regional institutional characteristics on the relation between societal trust and tax compliance,and find that the relation is more pronounced in firms with poor corporate governance and under weaker regulation.Additionally,we find that societal trust is positively correlated to tax benefits,which implies firms located in a higher level of societal trust are allowed to enjoy more tax benefits.Thus trust’s positive and negative impacts on tax burden will be traded off and so that firm tax burden will not be added due to a higher level of societal trust.Overall,our results highlight the role of societal trust in shaping corporate tax behaviors,and confirm the pivotal role of informal institutions to achieve common prosperity.