Tax enforcement and private firms' audited financial statements: the moderating role of secrecy culture

Purpose - The research aims to investigate the moderating role of secrecy culture on the effect of tax enforcement on the likelihood that private firms hire external auditors. Design/methodology/approach - The study generates more than 70,000 observations from 83 country-years from the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2018 dataset. Because the study focuses on private firms in emerging countries, data on publicly listed firms and firms from OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries are deleted. The secrecy culture data are generated from Hofstede's website. The data are then analyzed with logit analyses because the dependent variable is binary. Findings - The results demonstrate that tax enforcement increases the likelihood that private firms hire external auditors. Further, secrecy culture weakens the relationship between tax enforcement and audit demand. Practical implications - Governments in emerging countries need to encourage private firms to hire external auditors by intensifying tax enforcement because private firms often do not appreciate the importance of high-quality financial statements. However, secretive national culture may reduce tax enforcement's effectiveness in motivating private firms to hire external auditors. Hence, governments of highly secretive countries need to address this issue and find alternative ways to promote audited financial statements. Originality/value - Audit demand of private firms in emerging countries is relatively understudied, especially concerning tax enforcement. Furthermore, the research also focuses on the moderating role of national culture (secrecy) in explaining the relationship between tax enforcement and audit demand.