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on Accounting and Auditing |
| By: | Keishi Fujiyama (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN); Sidney J. Gray (University of Sydney Business School, AUSTRALIA) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how national institutions impacting accounting transparency norms may influence accounting practices, with particular reference to the use of management discretion, in the context of a global accounting standards setting regime. Specifically, we examine whether national institutions impacting on accounting transparency have a persistent influence on goodwill impairment recognition decisions in Europe following the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Using a sample of 870 firm-year observations from 13 European countries during 2007 to 2014, including the global financial crisis period, we find that firms in countries with strong equity financing, a common law tradition and higher culturally derived transparency values are more likely to recognize goodwill impairment losses. We also find some evidence that national institutions impacting accounting transparency norms persistently influence goodwill impairment practices under IFRS during the global financial crisis period similar to non-crisis periods. |
| Keywords: | Accounting transparency; National institution; Accounting for goodwill; Goodwill impairment; IFRS |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2026-05 |
| By: | Amberger, Harald; Giese, Henning; Koch, Reinald; Ortner, Lukas |
| Abstract: | Despite the central role of corporate tax departments in managing multinational enterprises' (MNEs) global tax positions, little is known about how their internal design shapes corporate tax behavior. Drawing on hand-collected data on more than 8, 000 tax employees across 309 publicly listed European MNEs, we examine the association between tax department centralization and firm-level tax outcomes. We find no evidence for tax department centralization being associated with the overall level of tax planning. However, firms with more centralized tax departments engage in greater cross-border profit shifting, respond less to local tax incentives, and face higher tax risk. These findings suggest that tax department design shapes the means rather than the intensity of corporate tax planning. Our study extends the emerging literature on tax department design and provides insights for managers responsible for corporate tax strategies as well as for policymakers anticipating organizational responses to international tax reforms |
| Keywords: | management structure, tax planning, tax risk |
| JEL: | H25 H26 M12 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:arqudp:337471 |
| By: | Etienne Lehmann; Eddy Zanoutene |
| Abstract: | We study the optimal taxation of corporate and dividend income when entrepreneurs can use retained earnings to reduce their tax burden. We show that eliminating dividend taxes while increasing the corporate income tax (CIT) to keep investment unchanged raises total tax revenue. Our simulations suggest net revenue gains of 0.1-0.4% of GDP. In an infinite-horizon model, the optimal policy sets dividend taxes to zero in every period. As the discount factor approaches one and when the planner values only workers’ welfare, the optimal steady-state CIT converges to a standard inverse elasticity rule. |
| Keywords: | corporate tax, dividend tax, optimal taxation, capital taxation |
| JEL: | H21 H24 H25 H26 H32 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12424 |
| By: | Laudage, Sabine; Riedel, Nadine; Schmidt, Katharina; Strohmaier, Kristina; Voget, Johannes; Wickel, Sophia |
| Abstract: | In recent years, a growing number of countries have enacted tax rules that require multinational enterprises (MNEs) to document their intra-firm trade prices and show that they are set as in third-party trade. The objective of these rules is to limit opportunities for strategic trade mis-pricing and profit shifting to lower-tax affiliates. In this paper, we study the regulations' fiscal and real effects. Testing ground is the introduction of transfer pricing (TP) documentation rules in France in 2010. Drawing on rich firm-level data, we show that affected MNEs reduced their outward profit shifting from France, while simultaneously lowering real investments in the country. Outside of France, treated MNEs decreased their real economic activity at low-tax (but not at high-tax) group locations. |
| Keywords: | multinational firm, corporate taxation, profit shifting |
| JEL: | F21 F23 H25 H26 H87 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:337486 |
| By: | Mark Aguiar; Benjamin Moll; Florian Scheuer; Luis Aguiar |
| Abstract: | Standard optimal capital tax theory abstracts from modeling asset prices, making it unsuitable for thinking about capital gains and wealth taxation. We study optimal redistributive taxation in an environment with asset price movements, adopting the modern finance view that asset prices fluctuate not only because of changing cash flows, but also due to other factors ("discount rates''). We show that a combination of realization-based capital gains and cash flow taxes implements the optimal allocation regardless of the source of asset-price fluctuations. Moreover, the capital gains tax avoids distortions in portfolio choice (the so-called lock-in effect) by targeting total net trades rather than gains from selling individual assets. These results stand in contrast to the classic Haig-Simons comprehensive income tax concept as well as recent proposals for wealth or accrual-based capital gains taxes. |
| Keywords: | capital and wealth taxation, asset pricing, portfolio choice |
| JEL: | E6 G1 H2 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12472 |
| By: | Anis Shami (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes) |
| Abstract: | Purpose: This paper investigates the adoption of non-financial reporting (NFR) standards and the double materiality (DM) principle, and their possible implications on external performance measures, namely ESG ratings. By doing so, it positions reporting practices as mechanisms that affect disclosure quality and the transparency and accountability of firms' business models. Design/Methodology/Approach: Longitudinal analysis over three years (2020–2022) was conducted using the 366 European listed companies' annual reports. Descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares regressions were employed to analyze the association between reporting practices, DM adoption, and ESG ratings from several rating agencies. Findings: The results show that the adoption of non-financial reporting frameworks is associated with higher ESG ratings among European firms. However, the early adoption of double materiality does not yet have a significant impact on ESG performance at this stage. Research implications: The study contributes to the business model literature by demonstrating how reporting practices and regulatory development build external representations of firms' value creation, delivery, and capture. It highlights the role of disclosure frameworks and double materiality as institutional forces with the capacity to transform business models to meet stakeholder and regulatory pressures. Originality/Value: This study is one of the first longitudinal tests that empirically analyze the impact of non-financial reporting frameworks and DM on ESG ratings, and which sheds new light on how they impact evaluation of sustainable business model. |
| Keywords: | Non-Financial Reporting, Double Materiality, ESG Ratings, Business Models |
| Date: | 2025–12–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05519169 |
| By: | Jan LukÅ¡iÄ; Jörg Peschner; Giuseppe Piroli |
| Abstract: | We find that patents registered by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in tax havens help avoid taxes in the EU but fail to increase the total factor productivity (TFP) of EU-located group members. We conclude that many of those patents' prime purpose is not to make technology available and then diffuse it smoothly within the group. It is rather to avoid taxes in the EU by shifting profits to low-tax offshore entities. We suggest that implementing a comprehensive system of withholding taxes on outbound royalty payments could reduce profit-shifting associated with patents, thereby fostering more innovative and efficient uses of intellectual property. |
| Keywords: | Multinational enterprises, taxes, TFP, innovation. |
| JEL: | D24 F38 H21 H25 O32 |
| Date: | 2026–01–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2026_04 |
| By: | Ruth A. Judson; Colin Weiss |
| Abstract: | The size of the Federal Reserve's balance expanded dramatically from 2008 to 2022 and has recently begun to adjust as the Fed moves toward a policy of "ample" reserves. While this expansion was unprecedented in its speed and came after a long period of stability, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet has risen and fallen and changed in composition over time. This note provides a graphical review of the evolution of the balance sheet from the Fed's founding in 1914 through 2025, with particular emphasis on how the balance sheet changed as the gold standard ended in the early 1970s, as the Fed shifted to interest-rate targeting in the early 1990s, and as the Fed responded to the 2008 financial crisis. |
| Date: | 2026–02–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:102802 |