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Management Of Accrual Components In Response To Corporate Income Tax Rate Changes: Evidence From Korea
Author(s) -
Won Wook Choi,
Hyun Ah Lee
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied business research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.149
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 2157-8834
pISSN - 0892-7626
DOI - 10.19030/jabr.v29i5.8024
Subject(s) - taxable income , accrual , income tax , statutory law , state income tax , accounting , gross income , corporate tax , adjusted gross income , business , write off , economics , earnings management , international taxation , tax avoidance , monetary economics , labour economics , public economics , double taxation , tax reform , earnings , political science , law
Changes in the statutory corporate income tax rate provide firms with an opportunity to reduce their tax burden by shifting their taxable income from higher to lower tax rate years. One negative consequence of shifting taxable income across years is higher variation in book income for financial reporting purposes. Taxable income and book income are closely related in most countries, and, in general, reporting volatile book income across years is not a favorable signal to investors. This study investigates how firms shift taxable income and concurrently mitigate book income fluctuation by managing accrual components separately when the statutory income tax rate changes. Unlike prior studies, we decompose discretionary accruals into two components and examine distinctive patterns of accrual management in Korea, where book-tax conformity is high and aggressive tax avoidance is restricted. We find that firms manage book-tax accruals for taxable income shifting and manage book-only accruals to mitigate book income fluctuation. Furthermore, we find the extent of book-tax and book-only accruals management varies depending on the firms tax and financial reporting costs. The results of this study provide clear and compelling evidence of firms opportunistic accrual management behavior in response to statutory tax rate reduction.

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