The impact of the organisational structure of tax authorities on tax and accounting fraud

Abstract

Using tax centralisation reform enacted to eliminate decentralised tax authorities, we find firms have lower probabilities of tax and accounting fraud since its implementation. Our analysis shows the negative impact of the reform on tax and accounting fraud becomes stronger among firms with weaker tax enforcement, indicating that the reform plays a corporate governance role through strengthening tax enforcement. Additionally, we find this effect is stronger when firm-level governance is weaker and stronger in firms with higher agency costs. Finally, the reform effect is weaker among non-state-owned enterprises with political connections to the central government.