Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Income Tax Estimation Error

Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Income Tax Estimation Error
Author: Preeti Choudhary
Publisher:
Total Pages: 58
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:
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This paper re-examines whether auditor-provided tax services (APTS) are associated with better or worse audit quality. While some believe that one accounting firm providing both audit and tax services to a client improves audit quality through knowledge spillover, others are concerned that non-audit services inhibit auditor independence by lowering auditors' professional skepticism. Using a tax-specific measure of audit quality that captures within-GAAP income tax estimation error and more rigorous econometric techniques to address endogeneity than those employed by prior research, we find that greater APTS are associated with worse audit quality. When a company begins purchasing a material amount of APTS, income tax estimation error is 17 percent greater. Exploratory analyses suggest that the greater income tax estimation error is due to compromised auditor ability, not compromised auditor incentives. Our findings inform US and EU initiatives that question whether one accounting firm should provide both audit and tax services to a client.

Why Higher Levels of Auditor-Provided Tax Services Lower the Likelihood of Restatements

Why Higher Levels of Auditor-Provided Tax Services Lower the Likelihood of Restatements
Author: Kevin A. Diehl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 18
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:
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Kinney et al. (2004) ask in the Journal of Accounting Research: Why do higher levels of auditor-provided tax services lower the chances of restatements? In resolving this question, this paper investigates the relationship between auditor-provided tax services and restatements with proxies to represent the motivations of the audit committee and chief financial officers. Because Sarbanes-Oxley requires audit committee preapproval for these tax services, the necessity for including these variables is obvious. Logistic regression of seven specifications show that higher levels of auditor-provided tax services, financial experts, and long-term compensation are inversely and statistically significantly related to all restatements and (more strongly) to tax-influential restatements. The cash effective tax rate directly and statistically significantly relates to those specifications, showing that just increasing spending on these tax services cannot signal high-quality financial reporting in the absence of effective utilization.

Auditing Fundamentals in a South African Context

Auditing Fundamentals in a South African Context
Author: Pieter von Wielligh
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-03
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780190749040
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Auditing Fundamentals in a South African Context 2e is a practical, applied and engaging introductory textbook that supports students throughout the undergraduate level of the Auditing curriculum. The text is designed to enhance learning by supporting holistic understanding: theory is presented within the framework of the real-world business environment, assisting students to apply principles and standards with an understanding of their context. The text offers a clear pedagogical framework, which supports applied learning and develops independent, critical and reflective engagement with the subject matter. A continuing case study, which follows each stage of the audit of a South African company, demonstrates the practical application of learned principles and the integration of the auditing process with a typical audit client's business. The second edition is comprehensively revised to reflect all relevant, recent changes in the requirements of legislation, financial reporting and auditing pronouncements and codes, and addresses the new Code of Professional Conduct which was issued by the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants in the final quarter of 2018. Additional educational resources support teaching and learning, assisting students to develop the academic skills required to master their studies.

Auditor-Provided Tax Services

Auditor-Provided Tax Services
Author: Thomas C. Omer
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN:
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This study investigates auditor-provided tax services from 2000 to 2002, during which fees paid to auditors for nonaudit services (NAS) were disclosed, but separate disclosure of tax service fees was voluntary. We examine changes in the market for tax NAS in 2002, as Congress debated possible prohibition of these services. Using the Heckman MLE procedure to control for selection bias in tax fee disclosure, we find that a strong pre-2002 positive association between tax fees and higher than expected audit fees weakened significantly in 2002, suggesting that some companies paying high audit fees reduced or terminated auditor-provided tax services in 2002. Our findings also suggest that auditor-provided tax services were reduced among new or short-tenure clients. Controlling for tax complexity, we also find some evidence that early quot;returnsquot; (i.e., tax rate reductions) to companies from auditor-provided tax services were reduced in 2002. Finally, results of our selection model imply that the decision to voluntarily disclose fees paid to the auditor for tax services is positively associated with tax complexity and auditor tenure, and negatively associated with the proportion of NAS fees to total fees. Overall, our findings imply significant change in auditor-provided tax services prior to 2003, when separate disclosure of auditor-provided tax service fees was mandated.

Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Earnings Management in Tax Expense

Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Earnings Management in Tax Expense
Author: Ling Lei Lisic
Publisher:
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:
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Regulators do not prohibit auditors from providing tax services to their audit clients, provided these services are preapproved by audit committees. I examine whether the association between auditor-provided tax services and earnings management in tax expense varies with audit committee effectiveness. I develop a composite proxy for audit committee effectiveness by combining six audit committee characteristics. I find that auditor-provided tax services are less positively associated with earnings management in tax expense as audit committee effectiveness increases. My findings suggest that the knowledge spillover effect of auditor-provided tax services is more likely to dominate the independence impairment effect when auditor-provided tax services are preapproved by more effective audit committees.

Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century

Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century
Author: Alan J. Auerbach
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2007-04-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1139464515
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This book was first published in 2007. Most countries levy taxes on corporations, but the impact - and therefore the wisdom - of such taxes is highly controversial among economists. Does the burden of these taxes fall on wealthy shareowners, or is it passed along to those who work for, or buy the products of, corporations? Can a country with high corporate taxes remain competitive in the global economy? This book features research by leading economists and accountants that sheds light on these and related questions, including how taxes affect corporate dividend policy, stock market value, avoidance, and evasion. The studies promise to inform both future tax policy and regulatory policy, especially in light of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission that are having profound effects on the market for tax planning and auditing in the wake of the well-publicized accounting scandals in Enron and WorldCom.

Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Stock Price Crash Risk

Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Stock Price Crash Risk
Author: Ahsan Habib
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:
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This paper examines whether auditor-provided tax services affect stock price crash risk: an important consideration for stock investors. Provision of tax services by incumbent auditors could accentuate or attenuate crash risk depending on whether such services give rise to knowledge spillover or impair auditor independence. The study investigates two channels through which tax services might affect crash risk: earnings management in tax expenses, and tax avoidance. Also examined, is whether the association between tax services and crash risk is moderated by the particular business strategy that organizations pursue. A two-stage model is used to control for the potential endogeneity inherent in the selection of auditors for tax services. Empirical findings reveal that auditor-provided tax services attenuate crash risk by constraining both earnings management in tax expenses and tax avoidance. Further evidence shows that auditor-provided tax services reduce crash risk for firms following innovator business strategies. Taken together, empirical findings reported in this study support knowledge spillover benefits, i.e. insights gained from tax services can enhance audit effectiveness.

The Crisis in Tax Administration

The Crisis in Tax Administration
Author: Henry Aaron
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2004-05-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780815796565
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People pay taxes for two reasons. On the positive side, most people recognize, even if grudgingly, that payment of tax is a duty of citizenship. On the negative side, they know that the law requires payment, that evasion is a crime, and that willful failure to pay taxes is punishable by fines or imprisonment. The practical questions for tax administration are how to strengthen each of these motives to comply with the law. How much should be spent on enforcement and how should enforcement be organized to promote these objectives and achieve the best results per dollar spent? Over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has restricted spending on tax administration, forcing the Internal Revenue Service to curtail enforcement activities, at the same time, that the number of individual filers has increased, tax rules have become more complex, and more business have become multinational operations. But if too many cases of tax evasion go undetected and unpunished, those who may have grudgingly paid their taxes may soon find it easier to join the scofflaws. These events in combination have created a genuine crisis in tax administration. The chapters in this volume evaluate the capacity of authorities to enforce the tax laws in a modern, global economy and examine the implications of failing to do so. Specific aspects of tax law, including tax shelters, issues relating to small businesses, tax software, role of tax preparers, and the objectives of tax simplification are examined in detail. The volume also builds a conceptual basis for future scholarship, with regard not only to tax administration, but also to such fundamental questions as whether taxpayers respond mostly to economic incentives or are influenced by their experiences with the filing process and what is the proper framework for evaluating the allocation of resources within the IRS.

Corporate Tax Aggressiveness, Auditor Provided Tax Services, and Audit Quality

Corporate Tax Aggressiveness, Auditor Provided Tax Services, and Audit Quality
Author: Kellie M. Carr
Publisher:
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2017
Genre: Auditing
ISBN:
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Using tax accrual quality as a proxy for audit quality, I investigate whether companies that significantly decreased APTS surrounding the effective date of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's 2006 Rules on Ethics, Independence, and Tax Services experienced an improvement in audit quality after the change. Given the specific target of the PCAOB 2006 restrictions is companies aggressively avoiding taxes with the assistance of APTS, I also investigate whether companies associated with tax aggressive services are also more likely to experience an improvement in audit quality following the reductions in APTS. Results suggest an increase in audit quality due to a reduction in economic bonding following APTS restrictions. Consistent with the economic bonding theory, companies that significantly reduced APTS experienced a larger improvement in audit quality after the change compared to companies that did not significantly reduce APTS. For tax aggressive companies, those that reduced APTS did experience a significant increase in audit quality after the change compared to tax aggressive companies that did not significantly reduce APTS. Moreover, companies considered important tax clients by their audit firms that significantly reduced APTS did experience a marginally greater increase in audit quality after the change compared to other important tax clients that did not significantly reduce APTS. Overall, my results indicate that the PCOAB 2006 restrictions were effective in decreasing APTS and economic bonding, thereby leading to improved audit quality, especially among companies associated with tax aggressive services. Accordingly, concerns for loss of knowledge spillover seem to be minimal. There are few studies that investigate the effectiveness of the PCAOB 2006 restrictions on audit quality. Therefore, my study fills this void by using a tax specific measure of audit quality, tax accrual quality, to specifically examine the target of the restrictions-- audit clients that are associated with aggressive tax services. My study confirms and expands APTS, economic bonding, audit quality, tax accrual quality, and tax aggressive research, and also provides insight into and support for current policy debates concerning APTS and tax aggressive services.