Relationship between tax avoidance and managerial ability: the moderating role of risk management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1808-057x20252200.enKeywords:
tax avoidance, managerial ability, risk managementAbstract
The aim of this study was to assess the moderating role of corporate risk management in the relationship between managerial ability and tax avoidance. Previous studies have focused on the variation in the level of tax avoidance among companies through personal characteristics of managers, such as managerial ability, with mixed results. This study questions whether corporate risk management can explain these mixed results by influencing the relationship between tax avoidance and managerial ability, which provides advancement in the understanding of the determinants of tax avoidance. The study highlights the relevance of the risk management process in defining tolerance and appetite for tax risk, facilitating the capitalization on opportunities to reduce tax expenses with the consequent increase in organizational performance. It shows that the interaction between managerial ability and risk management has different effects on tax avoidance practices that generate permanent differences compared to practices that generate temporary differences, which can be useful for managers, auditors, investors, regulators, and other stakeholders interested in corporate tax avoidance. This study applied the regression analysis technique estimated by the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method on a sample of non-financial Brazilian listed companies for the period from 2016 to 2021. Tax avoidance was measured by the Total Book-Tax Differences (Total BTD) and its components, Temporary BTD and Permanent BTD. Managerial ability was measured according to Demerjian et al. (2012), and risk management, according to the Enterprise Risk Management Index (ERMI), proposed by Gordon et al. (2009). The results suggest that risk management improves internal and external communication and provides managers with information to make more efficient tax decisions. They also highlight that, in companies with better risk management processes, managers with higher managerial ability choose to engage only in more aggressive tax strategies, which result in permanent differences.
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