IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reaccs/v21y2016i1d10.1007_s11142-015-9336-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring income tax accrual quality

Author

Listed:
  • Preeti Choudhary

    (Georgetown University)

  • Allison Koester

    (Georgetown University)

  • Terry Shevlin

    (University of California-Irvine)

Abstract

We develop and validate a measure of tax accrual quality. Tax accrual quality captures variation in the extent to which the income tax accrual maps into income tax-related cash flows, with lower variation indicating a higher quality tax accrual. Low tax accrual quality arises from (1) management estimation error and (2) financial reporting standards that lead to differences between income tax expense and income tax cash flows not captured by deferred tax assets and liabilities. We validate our tax accrual quality measure by showing it is associated with firm characteristics that capture both constructs and by demonstrating it predicts future tax-related restatements and internal control material weaknesses. We illustrate the importance of our measure by showing that investors view tax expense as more informative in firms with better tax accrual quality. Future researchers can use tax accrual quality to address questions related to estimation error in the income tax account.

Suggested Citation

  • Preeti Choudhary & Allison Koester & Terry Shevlin, 2016. "Measuring income tax accrual quality," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 89-139, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reaccs:v:21:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s11142-015-9336-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11142-015-9336-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11142-015-9336-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11142-015-9336-9?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. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    2. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    3. Keith L. Jones & Gopal V. Krishnan & Kevin D. Melendrez, 2008. "Do Models of Discretionary Accruals Detect Actual Cases of Fraudulent and Restated Earnings? An Empirical Analysis," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(2), pages 499-531, June.
    4. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    5. Sonja Olhoft Rego & Ryan Wilson, 2012. "Equity Risk Incentives and Corporate Tax Aggressiveness," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 775-810, June.
    6. Vuong, Quang H, 1989. "Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-nested Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 307-333, March.
    7. Dechow, Patricia M., 1994. "Accounting earnings and cash flows as measures of firm performance : The role of accounting accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 3-42, July.
    8. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    9. Doyle, Jeffrey & Ge, Weili & McVay, Sarah, 2007. "Determinants of weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 193-223, September.
    10. Jennifer Francis & Ryan Lafond & Per Olsson & Katherine Schipper, 2007. "Information Uncertainty and Post-Earnings-Announcement-Drift," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3-4), pages 403-433.
    11. Holthausen, Rw & Verrecchia, Re, 1988. "The Effect Of Sequential Information Releases On The Variance Of Price Changes In An Intertemporal Multi-Asset Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 82-106.
    12. Benjamin C. Ayers & John (Xuefeng) Jiang & Stacie K. Laplante, 2009. "Taxable Income as a Performance Measure: The Effects of Tax Planning and Earnings Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 15-54, March.
    13. Paul Hribar & Daniel W. Collins, 2002. "Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 105-134, March.
    14. Dan S. Dhaliwal & Cristi A. Gleason & Lillian F. Mills, 2004. "Last†Chance Earnings Management: Using the Tax Expense to Meet Analysts' Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 431-459, June.
    15. Francis, J & Schipper, K, 1999. "Have financial statements lost their relevance?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 319-352.
    16. Hanlon, Michelle & Laplante, Stacie Kelley & Shevlin, Terry, 2005. "Evidence for the Possible Information Loss of Conforming Book Income and Taxable Income," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 407-442, October.
    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. Habib Saragih, Arfah & Ali, Syaiful & Suwardi, Eko & Utomo, Hargo, 2024. "Finding the missing pieces to an optimal corporate tax savings: Information technology governance and internal information quality," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    2. Prateek Sharma, 2022. "Management quality, M-rating, and bank failures," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 1-32, February.
    3. Song, Qian & Holland, Kevin, 2023. "The quality of tax accounting for financial reporting purposes: International evidence from the United Kingdom," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    4. Martin Jacob & Kelly Wentland & Scott A. Wentland, 2022. "Real Effects of Tax Uncertainty: Evidence from Firm Capital Investments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(6), pages 4065-4089, June.
    5. Sean T. McGuire & Stevanie S. Neuman & Sarah C. Rice, 2020. "Interim Effective Tax Rate Estimates and Internal Control Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 603-633, March.

    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. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    2. Fargher, Neil & Wee, Marvin, 2019. "The impact of Ball and Brown (1968) on generations of research," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-72.
    3. Hanlon, Michelle & Maydew, Edward L. & Shevlin, Terry, 2008. "An unintended consequence of book-tax conformity: A loss of earnings informativeness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2-3), pages 294-311, December.
    4. Robert M. Bushman & Alina Lerman & X. Frank Zhang, 2016. "The Changing Landscape of Accrual Accounting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 41-78, March.
    5. Wijayana, Singgih & Gray, Sidney J., 2018. "Capital market consequences of cultural influences on earnings: The case of cross-listed firms in the U.S. stock market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 134-147.
    6. Yaowen Shan & Stephen Taylor & Terry Walter, 2013. "Fundamentals or Managerial Discretion? The Relationship between Accrual Variability and Future Stock Return Volatility," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 49(4), pages 441-475, December.
    7. DeFond, Mark L., 2010. "Earnings quality research: Advances, challenges and future research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 402-409, December.
    8. Theodore E. Christensen & Adrienna Huffman & Melissa F. Lewis‐Western & Rachel Scott, 2022. "Accruals earnings management proxies: Prudent business decisions or earnings manipulation?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3-4), pages 536-587, March.
    9. Harris, David G. & Shi, Linna & Xie, Hong, 2018. "Does benchmark-beating detect earnings management? Evidence from accounting irregularities," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 25-45.
    10. Nezlobin, Alexander & Sloan, Richard G. & Giedt, Jenny Zha, 2022. "Construct validity in accruals quality research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112165, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Hirshleifer, David & Kewei Hou & Teoh, Siew Hong & Yinglei Zhang, 2004. "Do investors overvalue firms with bloated balance sheets?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 297-331, December.
    12. Shadi Farshadfar & Reza Monem, 2013. "The usefulness of operating cash flow and accrual components in improving the predictive ability of earnings: a re-examination and extension," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(4), pages 1061-1082, December.
    13. Hanwen Chen & Wang Dong & Hongling Han & Nan Zhou, 2017. "A comprehensive and quantitative internal control index: construction, validation, and impact," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 337-377, August.
    14. Abdulrahman Alomair & Alan Farley & Helen Hong Yang, 2022. "The impact of IFRS adoption on the value relevance of accounting information in Saudi Arabia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2839-2878, June.
    15. Tobias Schlueter & Soenke Sievers, 2014. "Determinants of market beta: the impacts of firm-specific accounting figures and market conditions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 535-570, April.
    16. Douglas Shackelford & Joel Slemrod & James Sallee, 2011. "Financial reporting, tax, and real decisions: toward a unifying framework," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(4), pages 461-494, August.
    17. Graham, John R. & Raedy, Jana S. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 2012. "Research in accounting for income taxes," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 412-434.
    18. Patricia M. Dechow & Amy P. Hutton & Jung Hoon Kim & Richard G. Sloan, 2012. "Detecting Earnings Management: A New Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 275-334, May.
    19. Alex Young, 2018. "How does competition affect real earnings management to meet or beat targets? Evidence from import tariff reductions," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 331-342, August.
    20. Nguyet T. M. Nguyen & Abdullah Iqbal & Radha K. Shiwakoti, 2022. "The context of earnings management and its ability to predict future stock returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 123-169, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax accrual quality; Financial reporting; Income taxes; Estimation error;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:spr:reaccs:v:21:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s11142-015-9336-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.