Tax Loss Carryforwards and Firm Investments
研究了税收亏损结转（TLCF）对企业投资的影响，发现TLCF正向促进投资，尤其当企业财务资源充足且投资机会多时，且对资本支出和研发支出的激励效果不同。
ABSTRACT The asymmetric tax treatment of gains versus losses can lead to the creation of a tax loss carryforward (TLCF) in case of prior-period losses. TLCFs shield future income from taxation and can therefore be relevant for investment decisions. The relevance of this tax shield is underlined by the substantial amounts of TLCFs carried forward by U.S. corporations. Despite the theoretically expected positive relation, empirical research on TLCFs and firm-level investments is scarce. We first investigate the TLCF investment relation using simulation analyses and differentiate capital expenditure from R&D expenditure. Our empirical results confirm the positive TLCF investment relation, especially when firms have sufficient financial resources and investment opportunities. Also, the TLCF incentive works differently for capital expenditures compared with R&D. Additional simulation results illustrate how the recent legal changes in carryforward and backward rules affect the investment-enhancing effect of TLCFs and show that it is expected to remain qualitatively comparable. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: H25; H32; M41.