Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms

Chris Jones; Yama Temouri; Alex Cobham

doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004

Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms

Chris Jones, Yama Temouri, Alex Cobham

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper investigates the association between the Big 4 accountancy firms and the extent to which multinational enterprises build, manage and maintain their networks of tax haven subsidiaries. We extend internalisation theory and derive a number of hypotheses that are tested using count models on firm-level data. Our key findings demonstrate that there is a strong correlation and causal link between the size of an MNE's tax haven network and their use of the Big 4. We therefore argue that public policy related to the role of auditors can have a significant impact on the tax avoidance behaviour of MNEs.

Original language	British English
Pages (from-to)	177-193
Number of pages	17
Journal	Journal of World Business
Volume	53
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004
State	Published - Feb 2018

Keywords

Big 4 accountancy firms
Corporate taxation
Poisson regression
Tax havens
Varieties of capitalism

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004

Cite this

@article{1b149c667fbd4edf99b1a8c55ea9cd2c,

title = "Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms",

abstract = "This paper investigates the association between the Big 4 accountancy firms and the extent to which multinational enterprises build, manage and maintain their networks of tax haven subsidiaries. We extend internalisation theory and derive a number of hypotheses that are tested using count models on firm-level data. Our key findings demonstrate that there is a strong correlation and causal link between the size of an MNE's tax haven network and their use of the Big 4. We therefore argue that public policy related to the role of auditors can have a significant impact on the tax avoidance behaviour of MNEs.",

keywords = "Big 4 accountancy firms, Corporate taxation, Poisson regression, Tax havens, Varieties of capitalism",

author = "Chris Jones and Yama Temouri and Alex Cobham",

note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank British Academy for help with funding this project (SG143332). We would also like to thank 2 anonymous referees, Nigel Driffield, Tomasz Mickiewicz, Jim Love and numerous participants/reviewers at the following conferences for their helpful comments and suggestions: the UK-AIB Chapter conference, Birkbeck 2016; the annual world AIB conference in New Orleans in 2016; the AoM annual conference in Anaheim in 2016. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 The Authors",

year = "2018",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004",

language = "British English",

volume = "53",

pages = "177--193",

journal = "Journal of World Business",

issn = "1090-9516",

publisher = "Elsevier Inc.",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms

AU - Jones, Chris

AU - Temouri, Yama

AU - Cobham, Alex

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank British Academy for help with funding this project (SG143332). We would also like to thank 2 anonymous referees, Nigel Driffield, Tomasz Mickiewicz, Jim Love and numerous participants/reviewers at the following conferences for their helpful comments and suggestions: the UK-AIB Chapter conference, Birkbeck 2016; the annual world AIB conference in New Orleans in 2016; the AoM annual conference in Anaheim in 2016. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors

PY - 2018/2

Y1 - 2018/2

N2 - This paper investigates the association between the Big 4 accountancy firms and the extent to which multinational enterprises build, manage and maintain their networks of tax haven subsidiaries. We extend internalisation theory and derive a number of hypotheses that are tested using count models on firm-level data. Our key findings demonstrate that there is a strong correlation and causal link between the size of an MNE's tax haven network and their use of the Big 4. We therefore argue that public policy related to the role of auditors can have a significant impact on the tax avoidance behaviour of MNEs.

AB - This paper investigates the association between the Big 4 accountancy firms and the extent to which multinational enterprises build, manage and maintain their networks of tax haven subsidiaries. We extend internalisation theory and derive a number of hypotheses that are tested using count models on firm-level data. Our key findings demonstrate that there is a strong correlation and causal link between the size of an MNE's tax haven network and their use of the Big 4. We therefore argue that public policy related to the role of auditors can have a significant impact on the tax avoidance behaviour of MNEs.

KW - Big 4 accountancy firms

KW - Corporate taxation

KW - Poisson regression

KW - Tax havens

KW - Varieties of capitalism

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034418603&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004

DO - 10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85034418603

SN - 1090-9516

VL - 53

SP - 177

EP - 193

JO - Journal of World Business

JF - Journal of World Business

IS - 2

ER -

Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this