Customer and tax behaviour: how customer concentration affect suppliers’ tax avoidance

ABSTRACT This study discusses, from the perspective of the supplier-customer relationship, whether and how firms’ customer concentration affects corporate tax avoidance in the context of China. The results indicate that firms with higher customer concentration are more likely to engage in tax avoidance. Higher customer concentration increases firms’ operational risks, and hence, they tend to conduct more aggressive tax activities to meet the increasing demand for internal liquidity. Additionally, we find that the positive association between corporate customer concentration and tax avoidance is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises. Moreover, when firms face more cash flow volatility, less cash holdings, and a poorer external legal environment, aggressive tax activities induced by concentrated customers are more pronounced. Our findings not only extend the growing literature on the consequences of customer concentration for firms, but also provide new evidence on their motivation for corporate tax avoidance, with significant implications for supply chain management and corporate governance.