Does Corporate Tax Avoidance Influence Firm Leverage of Vietnamese Listed Companies?

Abstract

Corporate tax avoidance is defined by reducing taxes for any particular purpose, extending from the gracious remission of taxes expense arising from inconsistent customs for financial statements. In this paper, we examine the association between corporate tax avoidance and firm leverage. The trade-off theory is significant for explaining the relationship between tax avoidance behaviour and firm leverage. Consequently, the company directs to allow tax avoidance behaviour and accept the company’s leverage at a higher level than usual. The consequences commence to transaction costs, financial risks when viewing at company health from financial statements, but will maintain the company achieves the expected tax rates. We utilize STATA to test GMM on a sample of Vietnam listed firms data over the period 2010-2016. The sample data of 125 companies in the period from 2010 to 2016, all 875 observations were used for the analysis. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between corporate tax avoidance on firm leverage in Vietnam. The research is essential to the regulator in controlling tax costs for companies, for investors in analyzing a corporate financial situation.