This study explores the role of deferred tax valuation allowances, management’s discussion of ability to continue as a going concern, and auditor going concern opinions in predicting the financial distress of a firm. Mayew et al. (Account Rev 90(4):1621–1651, 2015) show that textual disclosures in the Management, Discussion, and Analysis (MD&A) section of a firm’s SEC 10-K filing predict a firm’s ability to continue as a going concern. This study advances their analysis by including deferred tax valuation allowances in their framework. To the extent valuation allowances incorporate managers’ private information about future profitability, valuation allowances are useful in identifying the transitory nature of losses and thus the going concern status of the firm. Using a sample of firms that filed for bankruptcy over the period 2002–2018, the study shows that increases to valuation allowances are incrementally informative in predicting a firm’s ability to continue as a going concern after considering management’s textual disclosures, linguistic tone of the MD&A, auditor’s going concern opinions, financial statement ratios, and market-based variables. These results extend to three years prior to bankruptcy. The results also speak to the evolving roles of MD&A disclosures and auditor opinions on going concern.

本研究探讨了递延所得税评估准备金的作用，管理层关于持续经营能力的讨论以及审计师持续经营意见在预测公司财务困境方面的作用。Mayew等。（Account Rev 90（4）：1621–1651，2015）显示，公司SEC 10-K档案的“管理，讨论和分析（MD＆A）”部分中的文本披露预测了公司持续经营的能力。本研究通过将递延所得税评估准备金纳入其框架来推进其分析。在一定程度上，评估备抵金包括管理者关于未来获利能力的私人信息，评估备抵金可用于识别亏损的暂时性质，从而确定企业的持续经营状况。使用2002年至2018年期间申请破产的公司样本，该研究表明，在考虑了管理层的文字披露，MD＆A的语言基调，审计师的持续经营观点，财务报表比率和基于市场的变量之后，估值备抵的增加对于预测公司持续经营的能力提供了增量信息。这些结果延续到破产之前的三年。该结果还说明了MD＆A披露和审计师对持续经营的观点的不断发展的作用。