This study investigates whether tax-based proprietary costs associated with being a public firm (i.e., costs resulting from increased visibility to the tax authority) discourage public listing. I exploit the introduction of a mandatory disclosure requirement (FIN 48) which generated a signal to the government regarding the uncertainty of public firms’ tax positions, allowing for more carefully targeted audits. I hypothesize and find evidence of an increased propensity to go private by public, tax aggressive firms following the enactment of the disclosure rule but prior to its adoption. Cross-sectionally, the effect is stronger among firms that are more sensitive to tax-based proprietary costs. Moreover, IPOs by tax aggressive firms exhibit a relative decline after FIN 48, consistent with the disclosure requirement deterring private, tax aggressive firms from going public. Overall, my findings suggest that mandatory disclosure rules imposing tax-based proprietary costs may discourage some firms from operating as public entities.

本研究调查了与成为上市公司相关的基于税收的专有成本（即，因税务机关知名度增加而产生的成本）是否阻碍了公开上市。我利用了强制披露要求 (FIN 48) 的引入，该要求向政府发出了关于上市公司税务状况不确定性的信号，从而允许进行更仔细的针对性审计。我假设并发现证据表明，在披露规则颁布之后但在其采用之前，公共的、税收激进的公司私有化的倾向增加。从横截面上看，这种影响在对基于税收的专有成本更敏感的公司中更为强烈。此外，税收激进公司的 IPO 在 FIN 48 之后表现出相对下降，这与阻止私人的披露要求一致，对激进的公司征税以阻止其上市。总的来说，我的研究结果表明，强制披露规则强加基于税收的专有成本可能会阻止一些公司作为公共实体运营。