ABSTRACT

We investigate the relationship between auditor-provided tax services (APTS) and tax avoidance in Spain. As a result of a recently enacted EU legislation, APTS is seriously restricted within the EU. The evidence available so far for the US provides consistent support for a positive relationship between APTS and tax avoidance. However, given the importance of country-specific institutional issues, such as litigation risk, to understand the relationship between auditors and clients, the possibility of generalising the US evidence to other countries is limited. Supporting this view, our results indicate that the positive relationship between APTS and tax avoidance observed in the US does not hold in the Spanish market. This result seems robust, as it holds independently of the proxy utilised for measuring tax avoidance, as well as across an array of sensitivity checks. This study has potentially interesting implications at both theoretical and practical levels.

摘要

我们调查了西班牙审计师提供的税收服务（APTS）与避税之间的关系。由于欧盟最近颁布了一项立法，因此APTS在欧盟内部受到严格限制。迄今为止，美国可获得的证据为APTS与避税之间的积极关系提供了一致的支持。但是，考虑到特定国家的机构问题（例如诉讼风险）对于理解审计师与客户之间关系的重要性，将美国证据推广到其他国家的可能性是有限的。支持该观点的结果表明，在美国，APTS与避税之间的正相关关系在西班牙市场中不存在。这个结果似乎很稳健，因为它独立于衡量避税的代理，以及各种敏感性检查。这项研究在理论和实践层面都有潜在的有趣意义。