Determinants of Tax Avoidance: Empirical Evidence from Listed Joint Stock Companies on the UPCOM
Keywords:
tax avoidance, firm size, leverage ratio, firm age, auditing quality, profitability
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to understand and measure the impact of business
characteristics on tax avoidance behaviors of listed joint stock companies on the UPCOM in 2015-2019.
The research’s sample comprises 3,105 observations from 621 companies that are payers of profit tax
in five years. The statistical techniques used in the study include OLS, FEM-REM and GLS estimation
models. Our main finding is that business characteristics such as firm size, firm age, financial leverage,
profitability and audit quality determine the firm’s tax avoidance behaviour. Meanwhile companies
with higher leverage ratio are more inclined towards tax avoidance, the remaining factors have a
negative effect on tax avoidance.
