Earnings Management under Financial Distress Conditions, the Effect of Tax Considerations
Účetní manipulace při finančních obtížích společnosti - zohlednění daňového efektu
diploma thesis (DEFENDED)
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/117920Identifiers
Study Information System: 213927
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- Kvalifikační práce [17642]
Author
Advisor
Referee
Palanský, Miroslav
Faculty / Institute
Faculty of Social Sciences
Discipline
Economics and Finance
Department
Institute of Economic Studies
Date of defense
16. 6. 2020
Publisher
Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních vědLanguage
English
Grade
Excellent
Keywords (English)
Earnings Management, Revenue management, Discretionary revenues, Debt covenant violation, Tax planning, Tax shelteringThis master thesis attempts to contribute to the existing earnings management literature by examining whether tax avoidance incentives affect opportunistic accounting choices in distress conditions. To address this issue, it investigates 2668 companies in the quarters around breach of debt covenant spanning from 1996 to 2006. This allows to analyze two distress scenarios: first, whether the companies having the opportunity to minimize tax expenses and thus improve their financial stability, would deliberately switch from engaging in aggressive upwards real earnings management to tax considerations to mitigate the potential consequences of technical default; second, whether the companies facing increased lender's scrutiny after subsequent violation are compelled to switch by the creditor. The results indicate that tax considerations do not deter misreporting in the quarters around debt covenant violation. This thesis further provides evidence against the debt covenant hypothesis: the companies in the analyzed sample engaged in negative revenue manipulation in the quarters of new breach of debt covenant and in the quarters in which the firms remained in violation. In additional analysis, it was found that the above relationship is more prominent for the companies exhibiting poor financial performance.