Management Tone And Corporate Tax Avoidance Decisions From The Perspective Of Earnings Communication Conference

Tax avoidance is a common phenomenon in the business activities of enterprises.As a "double-edged sword",although it can retain resources for enterprises,it will also bring various risks such as performance damage and stock price collapse.An important reason why tax avoidance activities are so "rampant" is that complex tax avoidance means will hinder the "release" of information in the market,resulting in information asymmetry between enterprises and the market.It can be seen that one of the key ways to curb corporate tax avoidance is to strengthen the disclosure of incremental information of corporate characteristics.In recent years,as a highly valued way of information disclosure,earnings communication conferences is characterized by complete openness,real-time interaction and so on,so that it can become a bridge between management and investors "face to face" communication.As the carrier of the emotion of the management,the intonation of the management can reflect their real views on the development of the enterprise in the context of "impromptu question and answer".Especially in the high-context environment of China,the tone of management has richer connotations than digital information,so as to convey the incremental characteristic information of enterprises to the market and reduce the degree of market information asymmetry.Therefore,whether the information effect of the management tone of the earnings communication conferences will effectively inhibit the tax avoidance activities that bring information "obstruction" has certain theoretical value and practical significance.Most of the existing literature has studied the influence of the information effect of the management tone in earnings communication conferences on the external market,but few have studied its influence on internal corporate governance and business activities.Based on the increasingly severe severity of corporate tax avoidance,this paper selects the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2006 to 2020 as research samples to analyze the relationship between management tone and corporate tax avoidance at earnings communication conferences.This paper finds that:(1)The net positive tone of the management at the earnings communication conferences can release rich incremental information to the market,increase the cost and difficulty of tax avoidance,so that significantly restrain the degree of tax avoidance.(2)The mechanism test shows that the net positive tone of the management can make the external market more accurately understand the business performance and development prospects of the enterprise,and then restrain the tax avoidance of the company by improving the accuracy of analysts’ prediction,restraining the real earnings management of the enterprise and reducing the financing constraints of the enterprise.(3)Taking into account the influence factors such as the intensity of external supervision and the decision-making behavior of senior executives,the study finds that the net positive tone of management at the earnings communication conferences has a more significant inhibitory effect on corporate tax avoidance in these enterprises which is in areas with strong tax collection and administration,non-state-owned enterprises,and with no overly optimistic management.(4)After distinguishing the heterogeneity of senior executives’ positions,the study found that compared with other senior executives’ tone,chairman(general manager)has more global information about the company,and values the corporate reputation and its own "feathers" more.Therefore,the tone of chairman(general manager)has a stronger inhibitory effect on corporate tax avoidance.The conclusion of this paper affirms the information effect of earnings communication conferences management tone from the perspective of corporate tax avoidance,which is helpful to enrich the research of earnings communication conferences management tone in the field of corporate governance and expand relevant literature in the field of influencing factors of tax avoidance activities.At the same time,it has certain reference significance for strengthening tax regulation and improving tax governance,and also provides reference for improving the quality of corporate governance.