IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jocaae/v9y2013i2p136-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of transfer pricing aggressiveness: Empirical evidence from Australian firms

Author

Listed:
  • Richardson, Grant
  • Taylor, Grantley
  • Lanis, Roman

Abstract

This study examines the major determinants of transfer pricing aggressiveness. Based on a hand-collected sample of 183 publicly-listed Australian firms for the 2009 year, our regression results show that firm size, profitability, leverage, intangible assets, and multinationality are significantly positively associated with transfer pricing aggressiveness after controlling for industry-sector effects. Our additional regression results also indicate that firms augment their transfer pricing aggressiveness through the joint effects of intangible assets and multinationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Richardson, Grant & Taylor, Grantley & Lanis, Roman, 2013. "Determinants of transfer pricing aggressiveness: Empirical evidence from Australian firms," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 136-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:9:y:2013:i:2:p:136-150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2013.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1815566913000167
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcae.2013.06.002?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. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Peter K. Schott, 2006. "Transfer Pricing by U.S.-Based Multinational Firms," NBER Working Papers 12493, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Vivien Beattie & Bill McInnes & Stella Fearnley, 2004. "A methodology for analysing and evaluating narratives in annual reports: a comprehensive descriptive profile and metrics for disclosure quality attributes," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 205-236, September.
    3. Conover, Teresa L. & Nichols, Nancy B., 2000. "A Further Examination of Income Shifting Through Transfer Pricing Considering Firm Size and/or Distress," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 189-211, July.
    4. Roman Lanis & Grant Richardson, 2012. "Corporate social responsibility and tax aggressiveness: a test of legitimacy theory," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(1), pages 75-100, December.
    5. Desai, Mihir A. & Dyck, Alexander & Zingales, Luigi, 2007. "Theft and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 591-623, June.
    6. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    7. Lucian Bebchuk & Alma Cohen & Allen Ferrell, 2009. "What Matters in Corporate Governance?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 783-827, February.
    8. John Mutti & Harry Grubert, 2009. "The Effect of Taxes on Royalties and the Migration of Intangible Assets Abroad," NBER Chapters, in: International Trade in Services and Intangibles in the Era of Globalization, pages 111-137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. James R. Hines, Jr., 1996. "Tax Policy and the Activities of Multinational Corporations," NBER Working Papers 5589, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Irene Karamanou & Nikos Vafeas, 2005. "The Association between Corporate Boards, Audit Committees, and Management Earnings Forecasts: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 453-486, June.
    11. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Vinay B. Nair, 2005. "Governance Mechanisms and Equity Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2859-2894, December.
    12. Lorraine Eden & Luis F Juarez Valdez & Dan Li, 2005. "Talk softly but carry a big stick: transfer pricing penalties and the market valuation of Japanese multinationals in the United States," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(4), pages 398-414, July.
    13. David Harris & Randall Morck & Joel B. Slemrod, 1993. "Income Shifting in U.S. Multinational Corporations," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in International Taxation, pages 277-308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Auerbach,Alan J. & Hines, Jr.,James R. & Slemrod,Joel (ed.), 2007. "Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521870221, September.
    15. Gupta, Sanjay & Newberry, Kaye, 1997. "Determinants of the variability in corporate effective tax rates: Evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-34.
    16. Giovannini, Alberto & Hubbard, R. Glenn & Slemrod, Joel (ed.), 1993. "Studies in International Taxation," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226297019, April.
    17. Jacob, J, 1996. "Taxes and transfer pricing: Income shifting and the volume of intrafirm transfers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 301-312.
    18. Grubert, Harry & Mutti, John, 1991. "Taxes, Tariffs and Transfer Pricing in Multinational Corporate Decision Making," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(2), pages 285-293, May.
    19. Grubert, Harry, 2003. "Intangible Income, Intercompany Transactions, Income Shifting, and the Choice of Location," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(1), pages 221-242, March.
    20. Mohammad F Al-Eryani & Pervaiz Alam & Syed H Akhter, 1990. "Transfer Pricing Determinants of U.S. Multinationals," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 21(3), pages 409-425, September.
    21. Alina-Mihaela ION, 2009. "Knowledge Transfer On Collaborative Platforms," Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies,Bucharest, November 6-7 2009 46, Faculty of Economic Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics, Academy of Economic Studies and National Defence University "Carol I", DEPARTMENT FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE DEFENCE RESOURCES AND EDUCATION.
    22. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2008. "What problems and opportunities are created by tax havens?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 661-679, winter.
    23. John H. Mutti & Harry Grubert, 2007. "The Effect of Taxes on Royalties and the Migration of Intangible Assets Abroad," NBER Working Papers 13248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Joel Slemrod, 2001. "A General Model of the Behavioral Response to Taxation," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(2), pages 119-128, March.
    25. Richardson, Grant & Lanis, Roman, 2007. "Determinants of the variability in corporate effective tax rates and tax reform: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 689-704.
    26. M Edgar Barrett, 1975. "Annual Report Disclosure: Are American Reports Superior?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 6(2), pages 15-24, June.
    27. Stephen B Salter & Frederick Niswander, 1995. "Cultural Influence on the Development of Accounting Systems Internationally: A Test of Gray's [1988] Theory," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 26(2), pages 379-397, June.
    28. P. B. Oyelere & C. R. Emmanuel, 1998. "International transfer pricing and income shifting: evidence from the UK," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 623-635.
    29. Slemrod, Joel & Wilson, John D., 2009. "Tax competition with parasitic tax havens," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1261-1270, December.
    30. Brown, Lawrence D. & Caylor, Marcus L., 2006. "Corporate governance and firm valuation," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 409-434.
    31. Kaye J. Newberry & Dan S. Dhaliwal, 2001. "Cross‐Jurisdictional Income Shifting by U.S. Multinationals: Evidence from International Bond Offerings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 643-662, December.
    32. Desai, Mihir A. & Foley, C. Fritz & Hines, James Jr., 2006. "Do tax havens divert economic activity?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 219-224, February.
    33. Clausing, Kimberly A., 2006. "International Tax Avoidance and U.S. International Trade," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(2), pages 269-287, June.
    34. Sikka, Prem & Willmott, Hugh, 2010. "The dark side of transfer pricing: Its role in tax avoidance and wealth retentiveness," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 342-356.
    35. Douglas A. Shackelford & Joel Slemrod & James M. Sallee, 2007. "A Unifying Model of How the Tax System and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Affect Corporate Behavior," NBER Working Papers 12873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    36. Mills, Lillian F. & Newberry, Kaye J., 2004. "Do Foreign Multinationals’ Tax Incentives Influence Their U.S. Income Reporting and Debt Policy?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 57(1), pages 89-107, March.
    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. Aida Yulia & Nurul Hayati & Rulfah M. Daud, 2019. "The Influence of Tax, Foreign Ownership and Company Size on the Application of Transfer Pricing in Manufacturing Companies Listed on IDX during 2013-2017," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 175-181.
    2. M. Shanmugam, 2020. "Research and Development Intensity and Effective Tax Rate: Empirical Evidence from India," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 223-234, November.
    3. Hella Dellai, 2023. "Does Internal Audit Quality Improve Firm Performance? The Moderating Effect of Chief Audit Executive Gender," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 15(2), pages 19-28.
    4. Abdullah Almutairi & Baban Eulaiwi & Robert Evans & Grantley Taylor, 2023. "Tax Haven Use and Related‐Party Transactions: Evidence from Australia," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 33(4), pages 352-374, December.
    5. Arie Pratama, 2020. "Corporate governance, foreign operations and transfer pricing practice: the case of Indonesian manufacturing companies," International Journal of Business and Globalisation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 24(2), pages 185-200.
    6. Leung, Sidney C.M. & Richardson, Grant & Taylor, Grantley, 2019. "The effect of the general anti-avoidance rule on corporate tax avoidance in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 105-117.
    7. Adegbite Tajudeen Adejare & Bojuwon Mustapha, 2019. "Corporate Tax Avoidance Practices: An Empirical Evidence from Nigerian Firms," Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Oeconomica, Sciendo, vol. 64(3), pages 39-53, December.
    8. Ylönen, Matti & Laine, Matias, 2015. "For logistical reasons only? A case study of tax planning and corporate social responsibility reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 5-23.

    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. Richardson, Grant & Taylor, Grantley, 2015. "Income Shifting Incentives and Tax Haven Utilization: Evidence from Multinational U.S. Firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 458-485.
    2. Taylor, Grantley & Richardson, Grant, 2012. "International Corporate Tax Avoidance Practices: Evidence from Australian Firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 469-496.
    3. Taylor, Grantley & Richardson, Grant, 2013. "The determinants of thinly capitalized tax avoidance structures: Evidence from Australian firms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 12-25.
    4. Ricardo Santos & Samuel Pereira & Elísio Brandão, 2016. "Transfer Pricing Aggressiveness And Financial Derivatives Practices: Empirical Evidences From United Kingdom," FEP Working Papers 583, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    5. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    6. Arnt Ove Hopland & Petro Lisowsky & Mohammed Mardan & Dirk Schindler, 2014. "Income Shifting under Losses," CESifo Working Paper Series 5130, CESifo.
    7. Vincent Bouvatier & Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Anne-Laure Delatte, 2017. "Banks Defy Gravity in Tax Havens," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03101505, HAL.
    8. M. Shanmugam, 2020. "Research and Development Intensity and Effective Tax Rate: Empirical Evidence from India," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 6(2), pages 223-234, November.
    9. Fritz Foley, C. & Hartzell, Jay C. & Titman, Sheridan & Twite, Garry, 2007. "Why do firms hold so much cash? A tax-based explanation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 579-607, December.
    10. Taylor, Grantley & Richardson, Grant, 2014. "Incentives for corporate tax planning and reporting: Empirical evidence from Australia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15.
    11. Cooper, Maggie & Nguyen, Quyen T.K., 2019. "Understanding the interaction of motivation and opportunity for tax planning inside US multinationals: A qualitative study," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1-1.
    12. Bakke, Julia Tropina & Hopland, Arnt Ove & Møen, Jarle, 2019. "Profit shifting and the effect of stricter transfer pricing regulation on tax revenue," Discussion Papers 2019/11, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    13. Jaafar, Aziz & Thornton, John, 2015. "Tax Havens and Effective Tax Rates: An Analysis of Private versus Public European Firms," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 435-457.
    14. Belz, Thomas & von Hagen, Dominik & Steffens, Christian, 2019. "Taxes and firm size: Political cost or political power?," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1-28.
    15. Dischinger, Matthias, 2007. "Profit Shifting by Multinationals: Indirect Evidence from European Micro Data," Discussion Papers in Economics 2029, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    16. Jost H. Heckemeyer & Michael Overesch, 2017. "Multinationals’ profit response to tax differentials: Effect size and shifting channels," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 965-994, November.
    17. Argilés-Bosch, Josep M. & Somoza, Antonio & Ravenda, Diego & García-Blandón, Josep, 2020. "An empirical examination of the influence of e-commerce on tax avoidance in Europe," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    18. Jiménez-Angueira, Carlos E., 2018. "The effect of the interplay between corporate governance and external monitoring regimes on firms' tax avoidance," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 7-24.
    19. An, Zhiyong & Tan, Congyan, 2014. "Taxation and income shifting: Empirical evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 588-596.
    20. Dharmapala, Dhammika & Hines Jr., James R., 2009. "Which countries become tax havens?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1058-1068, October.

    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:jocaae:v:9:y:2013:i:2:p:136-150. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-contemporary-accounting-and-economics .

    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.