The Impact of Tax Avoidance on Accounting Criteria of Firm Value: Free Cash Flow To the Firm and Free Cash Flow From the Business

Abstract

Tax avoidance is one of the most important decisions managers, which can have a positive or adverse effect on a firm's value by preventing the transfer of the company's resources to the government. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of tax avoidance on firm value in companies listed to Tehran Stock Exchange with a sample of 180 firm's for the years 2008-2018. To test the hypotheses, multivariate linear regression got used and to assess the firm's value, two accounting criteria of free cash flow to the firm and free cash flow from the business have been used. Also, effective tax rate operating cash flow have been used to measure tax avoidance. The research findings showed that tax avoidance has a positive and significant effect on the accounting criteria of firm's value, which means that with increasing tax avoidance, the value of the company increases. The intensity of this increase in the estimated value of the firm through free cash flow from the business is greater than the estimated value of the firm through the free cash flow from the firm, which can be due to the neutralization of the financing effect. Thus, the research results confirm the theory of value creation in the relationship between tax avoidance activities and company value.

Keywords

• firm value
• free cash flow from the business
• free cash flow to the firm
• tax avoidance