IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v49y2022ics1544612322003191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax Authority Enforcement and Corporate Social Security Contributions: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Feng, Chen
  • Ye, Yongwei
  • Tao, Yunqing

Abstract

Using the policy of the Consolidation of the State and Local Tax Bureaus (CSLTB) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, we investigate whether and how tax authority enforcement affects corporate social security contributions. The Difference-in-Differences (DiD) estimate shows that corporate social security contributions decline with an increase in tax authority enforcement. Further, we find that this effect is more pronounced for firms with tighter financial constraints, lower tax compliance and those located in cities with greater fiscal pressure. Mechanism tests show that tax authority enforcement leads to increasing in the effective income tax rate and financial risk but decreasing in operating profit. Overall, our findings suggest that tougher tax authority enforcement engenders a negative effect on corporate social security contributions by strengthening liquidity constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng, Chen & Ye, Yongwei & Tao, Yunqing, 2022. "Tax Authority Enforcement and Corporate Social Security Contributions: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:49:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322003191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322003191
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2022.103094?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jing Cai & Yuyu Chen & Xuan Wang, 2018. "The Impact of Corporate Taxes on Firm Innovation: Evidence from the Corporate Tax Collection Reform in China," NBER Working Papers 25146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Fan, Ziying & Liu, Yu, 2020. "Tax Compliance and Investment Incentives: Firm Responses to Accelerated Depreciation in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 1-17.
    3. Joel Slemrod, 2019. "Tax Compliance and Enforcement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(4), pages 904-954, December.
    4. Azémar, Céline & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Wooton, Ian, 2020. "Is international tax competition only about taxes? A market-based perspective," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 891-912.
    5. Lopez-Luzuriaga, Andrea & Scartascini, Carlos, 2019. "Compliance spillovers across taxes: The role of penalties and detection," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 518-534.
    6. Johannes Rincke & Christian Traxler, 2011. "Enforcement Spillovers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1224-1234, November.
    7. Paul Carrillo & Dina Pomeranz & Monica Singhal, 2017. "Dodging the Taxman: Firm Misreporting and Limits to Tax Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 144-164, April.
    8. Chen, Shawn Xiaoguang, 2017. "The effect of a fiscal squeeze on tax enforcement: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 62-76.
    9. Wang, Jingwen & Shen, Guangjun & Tang, Dunzhe, 2021. "Does tax deduction relax financing constraints? Evidence from China's value-added tax reform," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    11. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    12. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    13. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    14. Liu, Guanchun & Liu, Yuanyuan & Zhang, Chengsi, 2022. "Tax enforcement and corporate employment: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ye, Yongwei & Zeng, Lin & Tao, Yunqing & Yun, Feng, 2023. "Tax authority monitoring and corporate information disclosure quality in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Liu, Lihua & Weng, Danyan & Zhang, Qin, 2023. "Unintended consequences of tax enforcement on corporate innovation: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1292-1309.
    3. Shao, Chuanlin & Tao, Yunqing & Chen, Dong & Ye, Yongwei, 2023. "Curse or blessing: National industrial investment fund and corporate R&D in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Wei, Wei & Song, Yan & Jin, Ruifeng, 2024. "The impact of tax digitalization on corporate salary structures," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Feng, Chen & Ye, Yongwei & Bai, Caiquan, 2023. "Tax enforcement and corporate financial irregularities: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Jin, Gang & Zhang, Jiwen & Ye, Yongwei & Yao, Shiqi & Song, Jingxiang, 2024. "Social insurance law and firm markup in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Lixing & Liu, Kevin Zhengcheng & Nie, Zhuo & Xi, Tianyang, 2021. "Evading by any means? VAT enforcement and payroll tax evasion in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 770-784.
    2. Feng, Chen & Ye, Yongwei & Bai, Caiquan, 2023. "Tax enforcement and corporate financial irregularities: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Liu, Guanchun & Liu, Yuanyuan & Zhang, Chengsi, 2022. "Tax enforcement and corporate employment: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Huasheng Song & Guili Sun, 2022. "Investment Promotion, Tax Competition, and Industrial Land Price in China—Evidence from the Corporate Tax Collection Reform," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Chan, Ho Fai & Gangl, Katharina & Supriyadi, Mohammad Wangsit & Torgler, Benno, 2023. "The effects of increased monitoring on high wealth individuals: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in Indonesia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 244-267.
    6. Alderson, Michael J. & Betker, Brian L. & Halford, Joseph T., 2021. "Fictitious dividend cuts in the CRSP data," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Gyimah, Daniel & Siganos, Antonios & Veld, Chris, 2021. "Effects of financial constraints and product market competition on share repurchases," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Marc Arnold & Dirk Hackbarth & Tatjana Xenia Puhan, 2018. "Financing Asset Sales and Business Cycles [Does industry-wide distress affect defaulted firms? Evidence from creditor recoveries]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(1), pages 243-277.
    9. Qianbin Feng & Lexin Zhao & Mingxue Xu, 2023. "Tax Incentives and Maturity Mismatch between Investment and Financing: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(4), pages 1-36, July.
    10. Chen, Yunsen & Huang, Jianqiao & Xiao, Sheng & Zhao, Ziye, 2020. "The “home bias” of corporate subsidiary locations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Heidi Quah & Janto Haman & Dharmendra Naidu, 2021. "The effect of stock liquidity on investment efficiency under financing constraints and asymmetric information: Evidence from the United States," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 2109-2150, April.
    12. Nico Dewaelheyns & Cynthia Van Hulle & Yannick Van Landuyt & Mathias Verreydt, 2021. "Labor Contracts, Wages and SME Failure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-15, July.
    13. Lim, Jongha & Minton, Bernadette A. & Weisbach, Michael S., 2014. "Syndicated loan spreads and the composition of the syndicate," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 45-69.
    14. Mark D. Walker & Qingqing Wu, 2019. "Equity issues when in distress," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 25(3), pages 489-519, June.
    15. (DJ) Fairhurst, Douglas & Liu, Yanguang & Ni, Xiaoran, 2020. "Employment protection and tax aggressiveness: Evidence from wrongful discharge laws," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    16. Wang, Jiaxin & Chen, Jin & Huang, Xiang & Song, Zilong, 2023. "Principal SOE customers and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from the government arrears clearance reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. Ahrends, Meike & Drobetz, Wolfgang & Puhan, Tatjana Xenia, 2018. "Cyclicality of growth opportunities and the value of cash holdings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 74-96.
    18. Ranjan D’Mello & Xinghua Gao & Yonghong Jia, 2017. "Internal control and internal capital allocation: evidence from internal capital markets of multi-segment firms," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 251-287, March.
    19. He, Zhaozhao & Wintoki, M. Babajide, 2016. "The cost of innovation: R&D and high cash holdings in U.S. firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 280-303.
    20. Kang, Shulong & Dong, Jianfeng & Yu, Haiyue & Cao, Jin & Dinger, Valeriya, 2021. "City commercial banks and credit allocation: Firm-level evidence," BOFIT Discussion Papers 4/2021, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax authority enforcement; Liquidity constraints; Corporate social security contributions; China; H32; D22; G31;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:49:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322003191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.