Corporate tax avoidance and profitability followed by mergers and acquisitions
Open Access
- 1 January 2018
- journal article
- Published by Virtus Interpress in Corporate Ownership and Control
- Vol. 15 (2-1), 148-160
- https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv15i2c1p2
Abstract
This paper aims to understand the change in corporate tax avoidance of acquirer firms following M&A deals. Several M&A features were tested in a sample which covers 391 European deals announced between 2005 and 2014. Overall, results suggest that there is no evidence of changes in acquirer’s ETR following M&As. However, evidence was found of a decrease in acquirer’s ETR of about 6.7% when the target firms report negative pre-tax income before the deal, and of 2.6% for domestic M&A. The decrease is increased to 7.9% if these characteristics are not mutually exclusive. Furthermore, it was found that acquirer’s ETR decreases with profitability, which is more pronounced in the presence of M&A deals. The findings support the longstanding view that taxation may not trigger M&As, although significant tax savings appear to occur for certain M&A characteristicsKeywords
Funding Information
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/SOC/04521/2013)
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