The relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the extent of tax planning

Abstract

By employing stakeholder, legitimacy augmented by value maximisation theory and supplementing agency, this study investigates the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and tax planning, where the tax authority and the public are assumed as important stakeholders in a high tax-regulation environment. Using the UK setting, this study selects a total of 76 non-financial publicly quoted companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for a 10-year duration (2005 – 2014) based on matched data between book tax differences (BTD and its components) and CSR data (Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings by ASSET4, a Reuters business information group). At the initial stage, this study found a weak positive association between aggregate CSR and the extent of tax planning. Product responsibility, human rights considerations and training and development under CSR social dimensions are found to be significantly related to the extent of tax planning. The relationship of CSR and tax planning changed with the existence of corporate governance as a moderating variable. The association of CSR and tax planning is found to be negatively significant at the higher quantile of permanent difference (PD) with the existence of interaction between corporate governance and CSR. In addition, corporate governance is found to be strongly and negatively significant to the extent of tax planning at the higher quantile of permanent difference (PD). This study also found that there is no relationship between previous years of tax planning and CSR, suggesting that there is no evidence that CSR is used as a strategic tool by companies to repair the threat posed by aggressive tax planning. This study provides evidence that companies‟ attitudes towards CSR are related to the extent of tax planning activities when the risks of tax planning become substantial or aggressive

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ORCID for Oliver Marnet: orcid.org/0000-0001-9450-2332

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