Reputational Costs as a Tax Avoidance Deterrent in Small to Medium Enterprises
利用比利时中小企业调查数据，发现声誉担忧使企业有效税率提高8.57个百分点，且对财务自由度低、需维护债权人关系的企业威慑作用更强。
Reputational concerns are considered a disincentive to tax avoidance. Prior literature examining tax avoidance in the context of large and listed firms attributes this relationship to the scrutiny to which large firms are subject. This begs the question if reputational concerns are a relevant tax avoidance deterrent in the setting of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) because SMEs have fewer stakeholders, lower disclosure requirements, and are subject to less media attention. Using survey data from Belgian SMEs, we find that SMEs with reputational concerns report an effective tax rate that is 8.57 percentage points higher than that of SMEs with low reputational concerns. We further examine which firm characteristics moderate the deterrent effect of reputational concerns on tax avoidance. We find that potential reputation damage is more important to the tax avoidance decision of firms with less financial freedom and firms with a higher need to maintain creditor relations. Finally, we document that reputational concerns act as a corporate tax avoidance deterrent against aggressive positions.