供应链透明度与公司避税

Supply Chain Transparency and Corporate Tax Avoidance

供应链是理解公司经营决策和财务行为的重要视角。本文从数量、业务占比和文本特征等多个维度构建公司层面的供应链透明度指标,在此基础上研究其对公司避税行为的影响、路径及边界条件。研究发现,供应链透明度越高,公司避税程度越小,即供应链信息披露能够提升公司的纳税遵从度。路径分析显示,供应链透明度较高的公司具有更少的利润跨期转移和异常关联交易。进一步地,当行业处于价值链上游,公司市场势力较大,外部治理机制较弱以及地区税收征管强度较低时,供应链透明度的治理作用更强。供应链结构分析发现,相比客户,供应商的信息透明度对公司避税的影响更加显著。本研究不仅有助于从供应链透明度的独特角度加深对公司税收行为的认识,而且为优化供应链信息披露的相关政策提供了经验依据。

The supply chain is an important perspective to understand the company’s business decision-making and financial behavior. However,under the general trend of the capital market focusing on information disclosure,the detailed supply chain information disclosed by listed companies has shown a downward trend year by year. The question then arises whether the low transparency of supply chain information masks the opportunistic behavior of the company’s management,such as corporate tax avoidance.This paper analyzes the impact,path,and boundary conditions of supply chain transparency on corporate tax avoidance. Specifically,this paper uses the data of A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2018,based on supplier and customer information in the annual report,to construct the company-level supply chain transparency indicators including the number and the businesses’ proportion of disclosed names,and the characteristics of the disclosed text. Empirical results show that the more transparent the supply chain is,the lower corporate tax avoidance is. Path analysis demonstrates that companies with higher supply chain transparency have fewer intertemporal profit shifting and abnormal related transactions. This paper also finds that the governance effect of supply chain transparency is stronger in industries that are upstream in the value chain,companies with higher market power,weaker external governance,and regions with lower tax collection intensity. Based on the supply chain structure,we further find that the transparency of suppliers has a greater effect on tax avoidance than that of customers.Finally, we use robustness tests including the difference-in-differences model, change model,propensity score matching test,instrumental variable,and Heckman’s two-stage model,with the same conclusion.The contributions are as follows. First,this paper expands the research paradigm of relational governance of the supply chain. The paper focuses on the information characteristics of the supply chain and explores the effect,path,and boundary conditions of supply chain information transparency affecting corporate tax avoidance. It breaks through the governance framework of corporate information disclosure and information quality in previous literature and conducts the analysis of corporate financial tax avoidance behaviors. The research paradigm has been expanded,and the financial governance effect of supply chain information has been reflected. Second, this paper enriches the literature system of influencing factors of corporate tax avoidance. Previous studies only explored the influencing factors of corporate tax avoidance from internal factors such as management characteristics,corporate internal governance,and corporate financial factors,but this paper starts from the analysis of governance factors of supply chain information,researching and constructing a comprehensive factor framework system for corporate tax avoidance.The policy suggestions are as follows. First,this paper shows that supply chain information will affect corporate tax avoidance. Therefore,tax authorities can build a big data tax collection and management system in the future which includes business and transaction data as well as supplier and customer information,thus further curbing opportunistic behaviors such as corporate tax avoidance. Second,this paper identifies common means of corporate tax avoidance from the perspective of supply chain information transparency. Tax departments can focus on key industries and enterprises,and further strengthen cooperation and information sharing with auditing and other departments in the securities market,thereby improving the efficiency of tax collection and management.