区域性税收优惠政策能够提升企业表现吗?——基于集团内利润转移避税的研究

Can Regional Tax Incentives Improve Corporate Performance?--Research on Tax Avoidance Based on Intra-Group Profit Transfer

本文利用2008—2018年上市集团公司及其子公司的地理位置信息与国家级和省级开发区范围进行精准匹配,研究企业集团通过向其位于开发区内的子公司转移收入,借助子公司所在开发区的财税优惠政策进行避税的行为及其经济效果。研究表明:企业集团通过关联交易向可以享受开发区财税优惠政策的子公司转移了大量收入,虽然降低了集团公司的整体实际税赋,但导致国家税收流失。在企业绩效方面,公司整体税赋减少并未促进企业投资或提高企业绩效,但提高了公司高管薪酬,增加了股利派发和股票回购。进一步研究发现,开发区完善配套的制度环境能够缓减税收洼地的负面效应。本文的研究结论为提高开发区之间政策的协调性和统一性,减少我国税收流失及提高财税优惠政策的精准性提供了参考。

This paper studies income shifting and tax avoidance behaviors of listed companies located in national and provincial development zones from 2008 to 2018.It investigates how these parent companies leverage preferential policies of development zones where their subsidiaries are newly classified,along with the negative economic effects.This article finds that parent companies transfer income taxes to these subsidiaries in development zones through related transactions,enabling them to indirectly benefit from the tax preferential policies.As for firm performance,after reducing tax liabilities,companies tend to allocate funds towards excessive executive compensations,larger dividend payouts and share repurchases,rather than increasing investments or enhancing their overall value.In addition,the paper finds that the negative effects of development zones would be mitigated by improving political environment and strengthening tax information supervision capacity.Specifically,this article finds that in areas where the relationship between the government and the market is less intertwined,the role of legal environment is better-built,the intermediary organizations are more developed,the financial concentration is less pronounced,and the"tax depression"effect on stimulating corporate investment more obvious.This article gives three suggestions.Firstly,efforts should be made to rectify local tax haven and highlight the positive role of development zones.Secondly,the anti-tax avoidance system should be established and enhanced,with greater ability to supervise tax-related information.Thirdly,there is a need to optimize the modern tax system,which serves as a crucial foundation for enhancing the effectiveness of fiscal policy.