Tax non-compliance and corporate governance: a comparative study. Working paper

It is generally accepted that taxes and tax evasion are intrinsically linked. While there exists an extensive knowledge base regarding tax compliance by individuals, very little is actually known about tax compliance by businesses due to a lack of detailed and readily available data. This paper uses a unique and recently available dataset that contains detailed information on over 10,000 firms (broadly defined) from around the world to investigate factors, particularly corporate governance, that affect business tax compliance. The empirical strategy employed exploits the nature of the dependent variable, which is interval coded, and uses interval regression which provides an asymptotically more efficient estimator than the ordered probit, provided that the classical linear model assumptions hold. These assumptions are investigated using standard diagnostic tests that have been modified for the interval regression model. Evidence is presented that shows that firms in all regions around the world engage in tax non-compliance, but that there is substantial variation across and within regions. The legal organization of a business is found to affect tax compliance, as does size, ownership, competition and audit controls but industry and age has no effect. Not surprisingly, high taxes an