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Do auditors constrain intertemporal income shifting in private companies?

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  • Henrik Höglund
  • Dennis Sundvik

Abstract

This study investigates the association between private company auditing and intertemporal income shifting. Using a large reduction in the Finnish corporate tax rate as a strong incentive for income shifting and financial statement data coupled with proprietary information from the tax authorities, we analyse accruals and cost stickiness of small private companies. Our results reveal significant differences in accrual income shifting between audited and unaudited companies, but only among companies that on average could anticipate the tax reduction the most. Further, we find auditors to restrict sticky selling, general, and administrative cost behaviour that we hypothesise is associated with illegal actions. Additional tests expose a nontrivial number of incorrectly unaudited companies which are the ones mostly associated with income shifting. Taken together, our study highlights the effects of audit exemption and the importance of enforcement while also suggesting that the audit process is value adding for the tax authorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrik Höglund & Dennis Sundvik, 2019. "Do auditors constrain intertemporal income shifting in private companies?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 245-270, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:49:y:2019:i:3:p:245-270
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2018.1490166
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    Cited by:

    1. Ojala, Hannu & Malo, Pekka & Penttinen, Esko, 2023. "Private firms’ tax aggressiveness and lightweight pre-tax-audit interventions by the tax administration," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Liu, Yapan & Jin, Ming, 2023. "Does supply chain network centrality affect firm cost stickiness?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    3. Ibrahim, Awad Elsayed Awad & Ali, Hesham & Aboelkheir, Heba, 2022. "Cost stickiness: A systematic literature review of 27 years of research and a future research agenda," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    4. Pais, Cláudio & Dias, Cláudia Afecto, 2022. "The implications of book-tax conformity and tax change for the earnings management of Portuguese micro firms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    5. Naoum, Vasilios-Christos & Ntounis, Dimitrios & Papanastasopoulos, Georgios & Vlismas, Orestes, 2023. "Asymmetric cost behavior: Theory, meta-analysis, and implications," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Oliver Lukason & María-del-Mar Camacho-Miñano, 2020. "Corporate Governance Characteristics of Private SMEs’ Annual Report Submission Violations," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Frederick Kibon Changwony & Anthony Kwabena Kyiu, 2024. "Business strategies and corruption in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises: The impact of business group affiliation, external auditing, and international standards certification," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 95-121, January.

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