Firms' Characteristics and Tax Evasion

Abstract

The study investigates whether the firms' characteristics, including ownership structure, audit, and familiarity affect tax evasion. The study has used the ordinary least square (OLS) to analyze cross-sectional data of 85 countries between 2007 and 2015 collected from the world enterprise survey. The study finds that the domestic, foreign, and government ownership in the firm increases tax evasion, whereas proprietorship and female ownership decreases the tax evasion. Further, the results show that familiar firms with international recognition are less inclined to evade tax. Similarly, the negative relationship between audit and tax evasion implies that the government should make it compulsory to check the financial statements of the firms by the external auditors, which, in turn, reduces the firms' tax evasion. Moreover, the firms that face more financial constraints evade more tax than the firms with access to the bank loan and solvent ones. The tax authorities should also consider reducing the corporate tax rate as the higher tax rates stimulate the firms to evade more tax.