数字化转型与企业避税

许云霄¹　柯俊强²　刘江宁³　王向虹¹

（1. 南开大学经济学院；2. 上海财经大学公共经济与管理学院）

　

　　内容提要：在中国数字经济高质量发展的过程中，数字化转型赋予了实体企业发展的新动能，对企业行为产生了重要影响。本文以中国2007—2020年A股上市公司为研究样本，探讨企业数字化转型对其避税程度的影响。研究结果显示，数字化转型显著提升企业的避税程度。该结论经过一系列的内生性和稳健性检验后依旧成立。进一步的研究结果表明，数字化转型通过增加企业管理费用来影响避税动机，且数字化转型促进企业避税的效果在治理环境较差、非国有企业、高科技企业、成长期企业的组别中更加显著。本文拓展了有关企业数字化转型的经济后果的探讨，丰富了企业避税的影响因素研究，为政府引导企业数字化转型、健全与完善税收监管制度提供了重要的参考意义。

　　

　　关键词：数字化转型；数字经济；企业避税；税收规避；管理费用

　　

　　作者简介：许云霄，北京大学经济学院教授、博士生导师，北京，100871；柯俊强，中央财经大学会计学院助理教授，北京，100081；刘江宁，对外经济贸易大学马克思主义学院副教授，通信作者，北京，100029；王向虹，北京大学经济学院硕士研究生。

　　

　　基金项目：北京市习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心研究项目“国际产能合作推进‘一带一路’高质量发展研究”（22LLMLC052）

　　

　　引用格式：许云霄,柯俊强,刘江宁,等.数字化转型与企业避税[J].经济与管理研究,2023,44(6):97-112.DOI:10.13502/j.cnki.issn1000-7636.2023.06.006.

　　

　　

Digital Transformation and Corporate Tax Avoidance

XU Yunxiao¹, KE Junqiang², LIU Jiangning³, WANG Xianghong¹

(1. Peking University, Beijing 100871;

2. Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081;

3. University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029)

　　

　　Abstract: In the high-quality development of China’s digital economy, digital transformation broadly empowers and gives new momentum to the real economy, which has an important impact on corporate behavior. Therefore, exploring the impact of digital transformation on real enterprises and its mechanism has practical significance and theoretical value in promoting the integration of the digital economy and the real economy.

　　Digital transformation helps to increase corporate value, reduce information asymmetry, improve the information environment, and enhance corporate governance. However, introducing digital technology can also lead to management dysfunctions, thus increasing administrative costs and reducing corporate performance. Studies on digital transformation mainly focused on corporate performance and stock price, but rarely discussed corporate tax avoidance, which is an important corporate behavior. On the one hand, digital transformation increases enterprises’ administrative costs, giving the incentive to engage in tax avoidance behaviors to increase internal cash flow and hedge against rising costs. On the other hand, in the later and mature stages of digital transformation, information asymmetry eases, information transparency increases, and the cost and difficulty of tax avoidance rises, which discourages corporate tax avoidance, along with the initial digitalization of software and hardware systems.

　　Using A-share listed enterprises in China from 2007 to 2020 as the research sample, this paper examines the impact of digital transformation on corporate tax avoidance. It is found that digital transformation significantly enhances corporate tax avoidance, which still holds after a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. Furthermore, digital transformation affects corporate tax avoidance through increasing administrative costs, which is more pronounced in the worse-governed, non-state-owned, high-tech, and growth-stage enterprises.

　　This paper expands the discussion on the economic consequences of digital transformation, enriches the study of the determinants of corporate tax avoidance, and provides important references for the government to guide the digital transformation of enterprises and improve tax regulation. Therefore, the government should introduce special tax incentives for digital transformation to reduce the burden on enterprises. On the contrary, enterprises should adopt systematic solutions that combine their business strategies and investment and financing decisions to promote the all-round digital transformation, thereby reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

　　Keywords: digital transformation; digital economy; corporate tax avoidance; tax planning; administration expense