企业集团的决策权配置与实际税负

Allocation of Decision Rights in Business Groups and Actual Tax Burden

企业集团作为现代企业的高级组织形式,其实际税负的决定机制受到广泛关注。本文尝试从内部资本配置的关键机制——决策权配置视角切入,考察决策权配置的集权程度对企业集团实际税负的影响。事实上,囿于数据和方法的限制,对企业集团的决策权配置问题的“黑箱”还缺乏深入研究。鉴于此,本文基于中国企业集团母子公司独立纳税的规定以及资本市场“双重披露制”提供的研究契机,利用2008—2019年A股上市公司数据,检验了决策权配置的集权程度对企业集团实际税负的影响。实证结果表明,伴随企业集团决策权配置集权程度的提高,其实际税负显著降低。机制检验表明,集权管理模式降低企业集团税收负担的作用路径包括提高决策权与税收专业知识的匹配程度、缓解母子公司之间的委托代理问题以及促进组织间协调等。进一步研究表明,集权管理模式降低实际税负的作用在子公司业务承担比重较高以及子公司数量较多的情况下更为显著;实际税负下降对企业集团价值的提升作用在集权管理模式下更为明显。本文的研究不仅提供了关于企业集团实际税负影响因素的新经验证据,而且也丰富了决策权配置经济后果领域的学术文献,对理解决策权配置如何影响公司价值具有启示意义。

As an advanced organization form of modern enterprise,the mechanism of determining the actual tax burden of business groups is widely concerned.From the perspective of the allocation of decision rights,the key mechanism of internal capital allocation,this paper attempts to investigate the impact of the centralization of decision rights on the actual tax burden of business groups.In fact,due to limitations of data and methods,the allocation of decision rights in business groups is like a“black box”,which is rarely investigated by empirical methods.Based on provisions of independent tax payment of parent and subsidiary companies of Chinese business groups and the“dual disclosure system”in China's capital market,this paper selects Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2019 to investigate the impact of the concentration of decision rights allocation on the actual tax burden of business groups.The empirical results show that with the increase in the centralization of the decision rights in business groups,the actual tax burden significantly decreases.Under various robustness tests,the above conclusion is still valid.On this basis,the results of the mechanism test indicate that the paths through which centralized management leads to a reduction in the actual tax burden include the following three aspects.Firstly,the centralized management mode helps to achieve a match between decision rights and tax expertise,leading to better understanding of differences in the(potential)application of tax policies across member companies and the development of strategies to achieve the goal of reducing the tax burden from a holistic perspective.Secondly,under a centralized management mode,the principal-agent problem between parent and subsidiary companies is more easily alleviated,avoiding the fragmentation of different member companies and helping to reduce the overall tax burden.Thirdly,under a centralized management mode,the business group is more capable of coordinating interests and resources of all parties,facilitating the formulation and implementation of strategies to reduce the tax burden that require the co-ordination of member companies,thereby reducing the overall tax burden.Further analysis shows that the centralized management mode has a more significant effect on the overall tax burden of business groups when the proportion of subsidiary business is higher and the number of subsidiaries is larger.In addition,the decrease in actual tax burden has a more significant role in enhancing the value of business groups under centralized management mode.The main contributions of this paper are as follows.Firstly,findings of this paper provide new empirical evidence on factors influencing the actual tax burden of business groups.Secondly,this paper enriches empirical evidence in the field of the economic consequences of the allocation of decision rights within business groups.Thirdly,this study expands academic literature in the field of internal capital market governance.It helps to reveal the internal mechanism and operational logic of the internal capital market as a“black box”,and has important implications for further research.This paper has the following policy implications.From the perspective of the tax management practice,the goal of reducing tax burden can be achieved by adjusting the degree of centralization in the allocation of decision rights,the key of which is to grasp the mechanism and logic of the impact of the allocation of decision rights on the overall tax burden.In terms of tax risk prevention,business groups need to identify,control and prevent possible tax-related risks in tax burden reduction activities,while tax authorities should further improve the system and technical means of tax collection and administration,and pay special attention to the tax risk control of business groups with a high degree of centralization of decision rights.