Elsevier

Journal of World Business

Volume 53, Issue 2, February 2018, Pages 177-193
Journal of World Business

Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.10.004Get rights and content
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Abstract

This paper investigates the association between the Big 4 accountancy firms and the extent to which multinational enterprises build, manage and maintain their networks of tax haven subsidiaries. We extend internalisation theory and derive a number of hypotheses that are tested using count models on firm-level data. Our key findings demonstrate that there is a strong correlation and causal link between the size of an MNE’s tax haven network and their use of the Big 4. We therefore argue that public policy related to the role of auditors can have a significant impact on the tax avoidance behaviour of MNEs.

Keywords

Tax havens
Varieties of capitalism
Corporate taxation
Poisson regression
Big 4 accountancy firms

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