Tax Uncertainty and Incremental Tax Avoidance
研究了企业避税程度增加时，避税是否变得更不确定。发现每增加1美元潜在税负，平均避税32.8美分，其中仅4.3%计入不确定税收利益准备金，且高避税企业该比例并未更高，表明高避税未必更不确定。
ABSTRACT We investigate whether tax avoidance becomes more uncertain as the rate of tax avoidance increases. We estimate a system of equations to demonstrate that as firms' pretax income increases, each additional dollar of potential tax results, on average, in 32.8 cents of tax avoided, which we refer to as incremental tax avoidance. Of the incremental tax avoided, 1.4 cents represent additions to the reserve for uncertain tax benefits (UTB reserve), or 4.3 percent of the total incremental tax avoided. We then partition sample firms into groups that prior research suggests engage in higher rates of tax avoidance, and examine the amount of incremental tax avoidance that results in additions to the UTB reserve. Results demonstrate that the percentage of incremental tax avoidance reflecting additions to UTB reserve is not larger for groups engaging in higher rates of tax avoidance, suggesting higher rates of tax avoidance may not be more uncertain. JEL Classifications: H26; M41; M48.