Tax, financial reporting, and tunneling incentives for income shifting : an empirical analysis of the transfer pricing behavior of Chinese-listed companies

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Journal of the American Taxation Association

Publication Date

Fall 1-1-2010

Volume

32

Issue

2

First Page

1

Last Page

26

Abstract

This study examines tax, financial reporting, and tunneling incentives on the transfer pricing decisions of Chinese-listed companies. We use the relative gross profit ratios of related- and unrelated-party transactions to measure transfer pricing strategies. We find evidence supporting the view that transfer pricing is used to (i) increase a listed firm's profits as the corporate income tax rate decreases, (ii) increase a listed firm's profits if its management's compensation is determined by reference to reported profits, and (iii) decrease a listed firm's profits as the percentage of shares owned by the government increases (i.e., the tunneling effect.) For those firms that face both tax and tunneling incentives we find that the incentives tend to offset each other such that there is no discernable earnings management.

DOI

10.2308/jata.2010.32.2.1

Print ISSN

01989073

E-ISSN

15588017

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2010 American Accounting Association

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Lo, A. W. Y., Wong, R. M. K., & Firth, M. (2010). Tax, financial reporting, and tunneling incentives for income shifting: An empirical analysis of the transfer pricing behavior of Chinese-listed companies. Journal of the American Taxation Association, 32(2), 1-26. doi: 10.2308/jata.2010.32.2.1

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