Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the determinants of the proportion of quantitative data in financial statement footnote disclosures. Quantitative data represents “hard” information and has been considered to be more persuasive than qualitative data. The primary focus is on income tax footnotes because revenue agents use them as a reference in tax audits, and citizen groups use them to analyse tax inequalities. This study posits that firms with lower effective tax rates (“tax aggressive” firms) disclose less quantitative data in their income tax footnotes.

Design/methodology/approach

The multivariate analysis uses data from the contents of income tax footnotes extracted from 10-K filings in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). It uses the alphanumeric characters identified in the income tax footnotes to calculate the proportion of quantitative data relative to the entire footnote disclosure as the dependent variable in a multivariate regression analysis.

Findings

The findings show that firms which avoid more taxes disclose less quantitative data in income tax footnotes after controlling for the readability of the income tax footnotes and the entire annual report. Therefore, firms seem to reduce the publication of measurable data accessible to revenue agencies and citizen groups.

Originality/value

This analysis provides evidence that firms weigh the financial reporting requirements and tax audit risks when they disclose quantitative income tax data. Also, it supports the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB’s) proposal to require more disaggregated income tax disclosure. To the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first analysis that focuses on the determinants of disclosing quantitative data in income tax footnotes.

中文翻译：

---

税收侵略性和所得税脚注中量化信息的比例

目的

本文旨在分析财务报表脚注披露中量化数据比例的决定因素。定量数据代表“硬”信息，被认为比定性数据更有说服力。主要关注的是所得税脚注，因为税收代理人在税务审计中使用它们作为参考，而公民团体使用它们来分析税收不平等。本研究假设有效税率较低的公司（“税收激进”公司）在其所得税脚注中披露的量化数据较少。

设计/方法/方法

多元分析使用从可扩展商业报告语言 (XBRL) 中的 10-K 文件中提取的所得税脚注内容的数据。它使用所得税脚注中确定的字母数字字符来计算定量数据相对于整个脚注披露的比例，作为多元回归分析中的因变量。

发现

研究结果表明，在控制了所得税脚注和整个年度报告的可读性后，避税较多的公司在所得税脚注中披露的量化数据较少。因此，公司似乎减少了收入机构和公民团体可访问的可衡量数据的发布。

原创性/价值

该分析提供的证据表明，公司在披露定量所得税数据时会权衡财务报告要求和税务审计风险。此外，它还支持财务会计准则委员会 (FASB) 提出的要求更多分类所得税披露的提议。据研究人员所知，这是第一个侧重于在所得税脚注中披露定量数据的决定因素的分析。