Research in accounting for income taxes

Research in accounting for income taxes

所得税会计研究

Abstract

摘要

This paper comprehensively reviews the Accounting for Income Taxes (AFIT) literature. We begin by identifying four distinctive aspects of AFIT and briefly covering the rules surrounding AFIT. We then review the existing studies in detail and offer suggestions for future research. We emphasize the research questions that have been addressed (most of which relate to whether the tax accounts are used to manage earnings and whether the tax accounts are priced by equity market participants). We also highlight areas that have not received much research attention and that warrant future analysis.

本文全面回顾了所得税会计（AFIT）的文献。文章首先介绍了AFIT的四个特点，简述了AFIT中涉及的规则。接着，详述了目前对AFIT的研究情况，并且对将来的研究提出了几点建议。本文的重点在于所研究的问题，其中大部分讨论的是纳税账户是否用于管理盈利以及是否由股票市场参与者定价，而这些问题都已得到了解决。同时，文章也强调了一些很少人关注但是又给未来分析提供了可能性的研究领域。

Introduction

引言

This paper reviews one of the more complex areas of financial reporting: accounting for income taxes (AFIT). AFIT is the process by which (1) future cash tax payments and refunds arising from current and past transactions are recorded as deferred tax assets and liabilities in an attempt to accurately portray the financial position of the firm, and (2) the income tax expense is reported in an attempt to accurately portray the current financial performance of the firm. Before this millennium, AFIT and its implications for financial reporting and effective ta x planning attracted limited attention in scholarly circles.However, in recent years, both financial accounting and tax researchers have begun to focus on AFIT, so much so that AFIT has become the most active area of accounting research in taxation.Almost all of the studies have been empirical, primarily testing the incremental information content of the tax accounts and their role in earnings management. To provide structure for understanding this growing literature, we discuss why AFIT is distinct from other financial reporting topics, briefly explain the essential principles that govern AFIT reporting, review extant studies, highlight key contributions, identify specific remaining questions of interest, and discuss weaknesses and opportunities of a more general nature.

本文回顾了财务报表中一个较为复杂的领域：所得税会计（AFIT）。通过AFIT，（１）由目前和过去交易引起的未来现金纳税和退税将被记录为递延所得税资产和负债，以求准确描述公司的财务状况；（2）上报所得税费用，以便准确描述公司目前的财务业绩。而在千禧年之前，AFIT及其对财务报表和有效税收筹划方面的启示都没有引起学术界的关注。然而，近年来，财务会计和税务研究人员纷纷开始关注AFIT，因此AFIT成为了税务会计研究中最活跃的研究重点。几乎所有的研究都是实证研究，主要验证纳税账户的增量信息内容及其在盈利管理中所起的作用。由于对AFIT文献的研究越来越多，为了方便大家理解AFIT，文中分析了AFIT异于其他财务报表主题的原因，简单阐释了主导AFIT报表的基本原则，回顾了现存研究，强调了AFIT的主要贡献，明确找出了大家关心的遗留课题，并且讨论了AFIT存在的缺陷及其带来的机遇。

We divide the research literature into three topics: earnings management, the association between book-tax differences and earnings characteristics, and the equity market pricing of information in the tax accounts.Rather than provide here in the introduction a detailed and lengthy review of the many inferences that we draw from the extant literature and the directions that we propose for enhanced future study, we condense our findings into four broad generalizations. First, managers use the tax accounts to manage earnings to meet or beat analysts’ forecasts, but not for other objectives, such as to smooth earnings, increase a big bath, avoid losses, or meet/beat prior earnings. Second, a small literature documents associations between book-tax differences and earnings characteristics, such as growth and persistence. Third, the evidence is inconsistent about the market’s use of the information provided in the tax accounts. Fourth, by eliminating a second source of income information, conforming book and tax accounting would result in a loss of information to the market.

本文将研究文献分成了三部分：盈利管理，会计税收差异和盈利特征之间的关系以及纳税账户中股票市场对信息的定价。我们从现存文献中得出了许多推论，并对以后提出了一个新的研究方向，但是我们并没有在引言这部分详述这些，而是将我们的结论泛泛地概括成四个方面。第一，管理者利用纳税账户管理盈利以使他们的业绩达到或者超过分析家们的预期，但是纳税账户并不能稳定盈利、增加巨额冲销、避免损失或者达到/超出先前的盈利。第二，一篇短文证明了会计税收差异和盈利特征之间的关系，比如说增长和持续性的关系。第三，市场利用了纳税账户里提供的信息，但是这种利用与实证不一致。第四，按照账面价值和税务会计消除收益信息的第二来源，会导致市场出现信息亏损。

Why study accounting for income taxes?

为何研究所得税会计？

At least four features of accounting for income taxes distinguish it from other areas of financial reporting. First, income taxes are the only expense that all for-profit firms face and taxes can be substantial, often consuming more than a third of pre-tax profits. Because tax returns are confidential, AFIT, as the bridge between the financial statements and the tax return, provides most investors with their sole source of information about current and future taxes.

至少有四个特征使所得税会计有别于财务报表的其他领域。首先，缴纳所得

税是所有盈利公司唯一的花费，而税金很重，经常占到税前盈利的30%以上。所得税申报单是保密的，而作为财务报告和所得税申报单之间的沟通桥梁，AFIT 是大多数投资者获取目前和将来税收情况的唯一消息来源。

Second, besides providing information to the usual consumers of financial reporting information, the tax accounts provide information to an adversarial party, i.e., the taxing authorities. In fact, the primary user of the tax information may be this adversary. The potential importance of the tax accounts for an adversarial party presents a quandary for managers. On the one hand, they face the usual incentives to account for income taxes in a manner that reduces financial reporting costs, which would normally occur by minimizing the income tax expense and thus maximizing after-tax book profits.On the other hand, reporting low income taxes may provide a red flag for the taxing authorities, lowering their search costs, and reducing the firm’s after-tax profits. Reporting low income taxes also can lead to negative publicity and potentially unfavorable legislation.Thus, AFIT choices must balance the information flows to the government with those to other users of the financial statements.

其次，除了给财务报表上登记信息的一般消费者提供信息之外，纳税账户还会把信息提供给消费者的敌对方，也就是税务当局。实际上，税务信息的主要使用方可能就是税务当局。对于税务当局来说，纳税账户可能很重要，但这也给管理者们带来了困惑。一方面，由于税收激励的驱动和出于降低财务报表成本的目的，他们要说明缴纳所得税的原因，而这种情况通常会在所得税费用达到最低化而税后账面盈利达到最大化的时候出现。另一方面，申报低所得税将会引起税务当局的红牌警示，降低他们的搜寻成本，减少公司的税后盈利，还会给公众留下坏印象，加大涉及到法律案件时处于不利地位的可能性。因此，选择AFIT时，要注意平衡政府里的信息流动和财务报表上其他用户的信息流动。

Third, the tax accounts provide an alternative measure of income. Book income is based upon GAAP, rules promulgated by FASB and the SEC. However, taxable income is based on the tax code, promulgated by Congress. The two systems have different goals and are influenced differently. Besides differences in the measurement of income, the statement of deferred tax accounts and the reconciliation of book and taxable income in the tax footnotes potentially provide users of the financial statements with information about the firm’s profitability.

再则，税务会计提供了另外一个衡量收入的方式。账面收入的计算是基于公认会计原则，而财务会计标准委员会和证券交易委员会颁布了其中的规则。然而，应纳税收入是基于国会编定的免税代码。这两种系统有着不同的目标，所受的影响也不同。除了计算收入的方法不同之外，递延所得税账户的报表和税务补充说明里账面与应纳税收入之间的调和，可能会将公司盈利能力的相关信息提供给财务报表的用户。

Finally, the income tax expense is never included as a component of operating income. It is primarily reported as income tax expense (or benefit) immediately before the computation of net income. It also is effectively reported below net income in items such as discontinued items and other comprehensive income that are reported net of tax. The fact that the income tax expense number is never reported in operating income likely influences how investors, analysts, and managers view this expense.

第四，营业收入并不包括所得税费用。在计算净收入之前，管理者就马上先

将它申报为所得税费用（或者效益）。并且实际上，所得税费用是以停产项目和其他全面收益等名义列入净收入，而停产项目和其他全面收益属于纳税后净额。所得税费用的数额从不纳入营业收入，这一事实很有可能会影响投资者、分析师和管理者对这项费用的看法。

By exploiting the four distinctive elements of accounting for income taxes, scholars can use the tax accounts to address questions that would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to address using other accounts. Indeed, a motivation (often implicit) of many AFIT studies is that the tax accounts provide a unique opportunity to study important questions. For example, studies of earnings management in the tax accounts either explicitly or implicitly consider both that tax expense is not included in operating income as well as the inherent tradeoff of managing earnings when there is an adversarial party involved. Likewise, many of the studies on the tax contingency focus on the new disclosures required by FIN 48, and how that affects firms given that the tax authorities will see that information. Having noted that some unique AFIT attributes have been exploited to study earnings management and tax contingencies, we also highlight that there appear to be additional opportunities for studies of accounting for income taxes to further exploit its distinctive features. We note some of these opportunities in our suggestions for future research.

通过探讨所得税会计的四个特征，学者可以利用税收账户解决一些难题，而其他会计方式还真的不能这些难题。许多人研究AFIT确实都是因为税收账户给重大问题的研究提供了一个相当难得的机会，而他们的研究动机通常是不明确的。比如，对税收账户里的盈利管理研究明确或含蓄地认为，如果当中涉及到了税务当局这一敌对方，那么所得税费用就不包括在营业收入和盈利管理的内在平衡里面。同样，由于美国财务会计准则委员会颁布的第48号释义要求公司分析和揭露所得税存在的新风险，而且税务当局也会得知此类信息，因此许多税收应急的相关研究将重点放在这些新风险及其将如何影响公司运营上。除了看到AFIT的一些特质已经用在盈利管理和税收应急研究上外，我们发现所得税会计研究似乎还有发展空间，可以进一步探讨AFIT的特征。我们已将这些可能的发展空间写在对未来研究的建议这一部分面。

Temporary differences

暂时性差异

Temporary differences are differences in the tax and book bases of assets and liabilities. These differences in bases result in taxable or deductible amounts in future years when the asset is recovered or the liability is settled.Consider, for example, the book and tax treatment of property, plant and equipment. Often the basis of prope rty, plant and equipment is lower under tax rules than under GAAP because the tax laws mandate faster depreciation. Thus, GAAP will report higher assets and higher income than will the tax laws. Taxes remitted to the government will be lower early in an as set’s life due to the accelerated depreciation, but will be higher in future years, once the asset is fully depreciated for tax purposes but is still depreciating for book

purposes. Thus, a liability is reported on the company’s GAAP balance sheet that measures the amount of the future tax liability that will be owed when the book depreciation becomes greater than the tax depreciation. This liability is called the deferred tax liability (DTL).

暂时性差异就是资产和负债在税收和账面基础之间的差异。这些基础差异决定了资产恢复或者负债得到解决时将来的应纳税额或可减免税额。以处理财产、厂房和设备的账面价值和税收为例。通常，按照税收原则计算财产、厂房和设备的税收基础要少于按照GAAP计算的税收基础，原因是税法规定，折旧速度更快。因此，GAAP对资产和收入的申报会高于税法的申报。一旦资产因税收提足折旧但也因账面持续贬值时，加速折旧会导致在资产寿命早期就提交给政府的税收变少，而将来需缴纳的税收变多。因此，公司的GAAP资产负债表上会申报负债，资产负债表就是账面折旧大于税收折旧时，衡量将来税收负债数额的表格。这个负债被称为递延所得税负债（DTL）。

Likewise, companies will often report a deferred tax asset balance. Consider, for example, the treatment of bad debts坏帐. GAAP rules set up an allowance account备抵账户(thus reducing the basis of the accounts receivable balance) while tax law does not. Thus, assets (and income) will be lower for financial reporting purposes than for tax purposes. Taxes remitted to the government will be higher this year, but will be lower in a future year when the bad debt is written off for tax purposes. Thus, on the balance sheet of the company, a tax asset is included that measures the amount of future tax benefit that will be available when the same bad debts that were expensed under GAAP this year are deducted for tax purposes in a future year.

通常，公司也会申报递延所得税资产负债。以处理坏帐为例。跟税法不同的是，GAAP规则设立了备抵账户，以便减少应收账款负债基础。因此,财务报表上的资产（和收入）会少于用于税收的资产（和收入）。今年提交给政府的税收会增加，但出于税收目的，坏账会被注销，因此明年的税收会降低。所以，公司的资产负债表上会列入税收资产，税收资产衡量了将来的税收收益，而出于税收目的，今年按照GAAP花掉的同一坏账会在明年被注销，这也使得将来的税收收益可供使用。这个账户被称为递延所得税资产账户（DTA）。

An important consideration under GAAP, when recording any asset, relates to the probability of recoverability of the asset. Under GAAP, when a firm records a deferred tax asset, it must also assess its recoverability. If it is more likely than not that the asset will not be recovered, then the firm must reduce the net asset balance. In the case of the DTA, the net asset balance is reduced by recording a valuation allowance估价备抵that offsets the DTA balance. For example, if a company recorded a $1,000 deferred tax asset, but believes that it will only benefit by $700, then it will record a valuation allowance of $300. It is important to note that the offset to the creation of the valuation allowance runs through tax expense (and thus net income). Thus, in the preceding example, the creation of the $300 valuation allowance account would increase income tax expense and thus reduce net income by $300.

核算任一资产时，GAAP重点考虑的一点是资产的可能性和可回收程度。根据GAPP，公司要核算递延所得税资产，必须同时评估资产的可回收程度。如果资产多半可能不可回收，那么公司必须减少净资产负债。就DTA来说，只要核

算抵消DTA负债的估价备抵，就可以减少净资产负债。比如，若一家公司核算了价值1000美元的递延所得税资产，但是认为它只能盈利700美元，那么这家公司将会核算价值300美元的估价备抵。值得注意的是，抵消估价备抵贯穿整个税收费用（所以也贯穿整个净收入）。因此，在刚刚的例子当中，300美元的估价备抵会增加所得税费用，因此也会减少300美元的净收入。

The tax footnotes in the financial statements are the best source of detailed information about temporary differences. Examining Fortune 50 firms from 1993 to 2007, Raedy et al. (2011) find that the number of accounts listed on the statement of deferred tax positions ranges from two to 28. Using similar data, Poterba et al. (2011) find that more companies have net DTLs than have net DTAs, and depreciation is the largest source of temporary differences. For some companies, the deferred accounts are very large, e.g., in 2004, 29% of the net-DTL companies had net DTLs that exceeded 5% of total assets. The largest DTL (DTA) is property, plant and equipment (other assets). The mean valuation allowance balance suggests that a majority of DTAs are not expected to provide a tax benefit.

财务报表上的税收补充说明是获取暂时性差异详细信息的最佳来源。通过考察1993年至2007年财富50强公司，瑞迪等人（2001年）发现列在递延所得税状况报表上的账户数量从2到28不等。波特巴等人（2001年）使用类似的数据发现，存在净DTL情况的公司要多于存在净DTA情况的公司；他们还发现折旧是造成暂时性差异最大的来源。有些公司的递延账户非常大，比如，2004年，29%的净DTL公司拥有的净DTL超过了总资产的5%。最大的DTL（DTA）是财产、厂房和设备（其他资产）。估价备抵负债的均值表明大部分的DTA都不会带来税收收益。

Permanent differences

永久性差异

Whereas temporary differences arise because there are differences in when certain transactions are included on the balance sheet and income statement, other differences do not arise from timing issues, but rather are permanent in nature. For example, municipal bond interest is not taxed but is included in revenue for book purposes. Consequently, permanent differences do not create deferred tax assets or liabilities. Instead, permanent differences cause effective tax rates (income tax expense divided by pretax income) to differ from the statutory tax rates. For example, municipal bond interest is included in pretax income, but no tax expense is recorded. Thus, earning municipal bond interest results in a lower effective tax rate (ETR).

当资产负债表和损益表中列入某些交易时，差异就会存在，由此也会产生临时性差异，然而，时间问题不会引起其他差异，但这些差异本身就是永久性差异。例如，市政债券利息不用纳税，但是出于账面目的，还是得把它归入税收。因此，永久性差异不会造成递延所得税资产或者负债，反而会将实际税率（即所得税费用除以税前收入）从法定税率中区别开来。例如，税前收入包括市政债券利息，但却没有做任何记录。因此，赚了市政债券利息，就降低了实际税率（ETR）。

The tax footnotes of the financial statements provide information about

permanent differences through a reconciliation of the effective tax rate to the federal statutory tax rate. All significant reconciling items must be disclosed. The governing principal (SEC Regulation S-X Rule 4-08(h)) defines significant as 5% of the statutory rate (1.75% for a 35% statutory tax rate). This high threshold typically results in disclosure of only a handful of permanent differences for any given firm-year. Permanent book-tax differences are not the only items that affect the reconciliation of the ETR to the federal statutory rate. For example, state and foreign taxes also cause the ETR of a company to differ from the U.S. federal rate. In fact, in their examination of the rate reconciliations of the Fortune 250 from 1993 to 2007, Raedy et al. (2011) find that the largest reconciling items are foreign and state taxes.

财务报表的税收补充说明提供了有关永久性差异的信息，永久性差异是实际税率与联邦法定税率相互妥协的产物。所有重要的应调节项目条都必须公开。管理原则（证券交易委员会S-X规则4-08（h）注释）规定，法定税率的5%为重大税率（也就是说若法定税率为35%，那么重大税率就是1.75%）。为了达到这个高要求，就得公布每个观察值的少量永久性差异。永久性会计税收差异不是影响ETR向联邦法定税率妥协的唯一项目。例如，国内外的税收也会导致一家公司的实际税率与美国联邦税率不同。实际上，根据对1993年至2007年的财富250强的税务协商检测，瑞迪等人（2011年）发现最大的应调节项目是国外税款和州税。

Unlike Poterba et al. (2011) and Raedy et al. (2011), who examine hand-collected data from the tax footnotes, most studies use computer-readable databases, which enable them to examine larger samples but prevent them from identifying the specific temporary and permanent BTDs. Thus, most studies tend to examine aggregations of temporary and permanent BTDs. Among other findings, they report that BTDs are disproportionately concentrated among the largest companies (Mills et al., 2002), and greater in the financial and information industries (Plesko, 2002). Furthermore, the determinants of BTDs include tax planning, earnings management behavior, and changes in financial accounting rules (Seidman, 2010), as well as changes in firm-level sales and the level of property, plant and equipment in a given firm (Manzon and Plesko, 2002).

不像波特巴（2011）和瑞迪（2011）等人那样去检测税收补充说明里手动收集的数据，大多研究都使用的是电脑可读数据库，这使得研究人员能检测更多的采样但又阻挡了他们去区分暂时性和永久性的BTD。因此，大多研究都倾向于检测暂时性和永久性BTD的聚合。其他发现还包括，据报道，BTD都不成比例地集中在大型公司（米尔斯等人，2002年），而在金融业和信息产业中占的比例各大（普莱斯口，2002年）。此外，BTD的决定因素包括纳税计划、盈利管理行为、财务会计规则中的变化（斯德曼，2010年）、公司层面销售和财产量的变化、以及某个公司的厂房和设备（曼宗和普莱斯口，2002）。

Finally, an area of continuing interest among scholars and policymakers concerns the gap between book income and taxable income and the factors that have caused it to change over time (see Mills et al., 2002; Desai, 2003, among others).We extend those analyses by adding data through 2010. Fig. 1 shows that, since 1992, book income has exceeded estimated taxable income in most years. Notable exceptions are 2001 and 2008.In those two recessionary years, a precipitous drop in book income

reverses the book-tax gap, leaving book income substantially less than estimated taxable income.Over the 18 years, aggregate book income is 100% of aggregate estimated taxable income. However, if the two recessionary years are excluded, aggregate book income rises to 110% of aggregate taxable income. Our updated book-tax gap computations are consistent with Manzon and Plesko (2002), Seidman (2010), and others, who report that overall economic activity is an important predictor of the book-tax gap and generalizations about the direction of the book-tax gap depend critically on whether the period of investigation is one of economic expansion or contraction.

最后，学者和决策者一直密切关注着账面收入和应纳税收入之间的缺口以及导致其发生变化的因素（见米尔斯等人，2002年；德赛，2003年）。通过2010年大量地收集数据，我们拓展了这些分析。数据1表明，从1992年开始，大多数年份的账面收入都超过了预计的应纳税收入。当然，2001年和2008年除外。在这两段经济衰退时期，账面收入骤降，使会计税收缺口反弹，致使账面收入远低于预计的应纳税收入。账面收入总量连续18年与预计的应纳税收入总量持平。然而，如果不包括经济衰退的那两段时期，账面收入总量比应纳税收入总量高10%。我们最新的会计税收缺口计算法与曼宗和普莱斯口（2002），塞德曼（2010）和其他人的报告一致，据报道，整体经济活动是会计税收缺口的重要预警器，而且，有关会计税收缺口方向的概括，主要取决于调查期是属于经济扩张还是经济紧缩的范畴。

Future research in earnings management

盈余管理研究的发展方向

To summarize, a consistent pattern emerges from the extant research on earnings management: Firms use the tax accounts to manage earnings to meet analysts’ forecasts but not to manage towards other goals. Although this field has reached some maturity, a number of issues remain unresolved. The remainder of this section highlights eight unresolved research questions.

总而言之，盈余管理的现有研究呈现出一贯的模式，即各大公司均使用纳税账户进行盈余管理，其目标仅为达到分析者的预期。虽然本领域的研究已取得一些重大成果，但是仍有大量问题亟待解决。鉴于此，本节的其余部分重点论述了八大有待解决的研究问题。

First, it is somewhat unclear why managers would not use the tax accounts to meet or beat prior earnings. In the survey by Graham et al. (2005), managers report that prior period earnings are an important benchmark. It is worth noting, however, that while 85.1% of surveyed executives indicated that EPS from the same quarter in the prior year is an important benchmark, only 54.2% responded that previous quarter EPS was an important benchmark. Thus, does the lack of research consensus about whether managers use the tax accounts to meet or beat prior earnings stem from which measure of prior earnings is used as the benchmark? Both Bauman et al. (2001) and Frank and Rego (2006) use prior year earnings as the benchmark and find no result consistent with this type of earnings management in the VA account. However, Schrand and Wong (2003) find that the valuation allowance is used as hypothesized when they define the prior earnings benchmark as the three-year historical average. In addition, Gupta and Laux (2008) find that tax cushion reversals are used to meet or

beat prior earnings when they define prior earnings as earnings from the same quarter, one year previous. A related question is: Why do managers not exploit the subjectivity in the tax accounts to facilitate big baths?

第一，管理者使用纳税账户的目标并不是达到或超过先前的盈余，为什么呢？这一问题并不明朗。根据格兰厄姆（Graham）等人的调查（2005），管理者认为前期盈余是一种重要的基准。然而值得一提的是，在所有接受调查的经营管理者中，85.1%表示前一年同季度的EPS可作为重要的基准，但是只有54.2%认为上一季度的EPS可作为重要基准。那么，管理者是否使用纳税账户达到或超过先前的盈余，研究人员并没有达成一致的共识，难道这是因为先前的盈余被当作基准吗？鲍曼（Bauman）等人（2001）以及弗兰克（Frank）和勒斯高（Rego）（2006）将前一年的盈余作为基准，并没有得出与这类VA账户的盈余管理一致的结论。然而，斯兰德（Schrand）与王（Wong）（2003）发现，当他们将先前盈余规定为三年的平均数时，需要假设估价备低。此外，古卜达（Gupta）和劳克斯（Laux）（2008）发现，当他们将先前盈余规定为前一年同一季度的盈余时，需使用税收缓冲逆转来达到或超过先前盈余。另外一个相关问题是，管理者为何不发挥其在纳税账户中的主体性来推进巨额反冲。

Second, while Gupta et al. (2010) conclude that managers are not using the tax contingency to meet or beat analysts’ earnings forecasts, Cazier et al. (2010) concl ude the opposite. Some resolution of this issue is required. Furthermore, Gupta et al. (2010) argue that the increased disclosures that are required under FIN 48 have decreased the use of the tax cushion to manage earnings. Does this mean that firms are now using the other approaches to manipulate the tax expense line item more, or has total management of the tax expense decreased?

第二，古卜达等人（2010）得出的结论是，管理者没有使用纳税权变来达到或超过分析者的盈余预期，而卡斯尔（Cazier）（2010）得出的结论正好相反。对此，我们需要作出判断。此外，古卜达等人（2010）坚持认为，FIN48要求加大披露的力度，这就减少了纳税缓冲在盈余管理中的应用。这意味着什么呢，公司使用其它途径来操纵纳税支出行列向，还是减少了对纳税支出的全面管理？

Third, we have very little information related to whether and how the users of the financial statements ‘‘see through’’ the earnings management of the tax accounts. Do analysts and the market see through this manipulation? How effectively do the taxing authorities use what is reported in the tax accounts to assess the tax situation of the firm?

第三，财务报表用户是否“看穿”纳税账户的盈余管理，他们是怎样“看穿”的，对于这些，我们知之甚少。分析者和市场是否也已经看穿了这种操纵？在评估公司纳税状况的过程中，税务当局是否有效利用了报表？

Fourth, given the discretion permitted under APB No. 23, as well as the limited required disclosures in this area, surprisingly few papers analyze this option to defer recognition of the residual U.S. tax on foreign earnings. Graham et al.(2011) present evidence that managers value the ability to defer the recognition of the residual U.S. taxes as much as they value the ability to defer the actual cash payments. Furthermore, this earnings management option likely is becoming increasingly popular as foreign earnings become a larger proportion of U.S. firms’ profits and as long as U.S. tax rates exceed those of most of its trading partners. On the other hand, analyzing firms in the

1990s, Krull (2004) acknowledged that annual changes in the permanently reinvested foreign earnings account might ‘‘…raise suspicion with auditors…’’ Graham et al.’s (2011) recent findings are consistent with Sarbanes-Oxley, FIN 48, and other regulatory changes having altered the practice of auditing. Thus, we would be interested to know whether firms still manipulate the permanently reinvested foreign earnings amount to manage earnings given the tradeoffs between (1) the increasing importance of foreign earnings and the discretion allowed managers in this area, (2) the current auditing environment that involves increased scrutiny from regulators, and (3) as discussed above, cash taxes pressure arising from the possibility that PRE may again affect the amount of foreign profits qualifying for a repatriation tax holiday.

第四，有关APB第23号文件通过的自由裁量权以及其中所要求的有限披露，极少有媒体分析这种推迟认可美国对外汇收入征收剩余税收的选择。格兰厄姆等人（2011）已证明，管理者非常重视这种推迟认可美国剩余税收的能力，这就如同他们重视推迟实际现金支付的能力。另外，只要美国税率超过大多数合作伙伴，这种盈余管理选择就会变得愈来愈广泛，因为外汇收入在美国公司利润中占据相当大的比例。另一方面，通过分析上个世纪九十年代的公司，克鲁尔（2004）承认，长期的再投资外汇收入账户每年都在变化，这可能“……引起审计员的怀疑……”，格兰厄姆等人（2011）的最新发现与FIN48的萨班斯-奥克斯利法案吻合。其它的政策变化则改变了审计的例行。因此，权衡以下几点：第一外汇收入的重要性逐步增加，本领域的管理者拥有了自由裁量权；第二，当前的审计环境是监管者的审查愈加严格；第三，如上所述，PRE可能影响外汇收入数量，符合回流资金免税，从而给现金税收带来压力，我非常有兴趣知道，公司是否仍会通过操纵长期的再投资外汇收入数量来实现盈余管理。

Fifth, besides earnings management, the option under APB No. 23 to reduce the ETR provides researchers with an opportunity to study the importance that managers place on the ETR. Anecdotally, managers appear to place emphasis on maintaining a smooth and reasonably low ETR. The discretion allowed managers in reporting tax expense on foreign earnings could provide a fruitful setting to examine this issue.

第五，除了盈余管理之外，APB第23号文件关于减少EPR的选择为研究员提供了机会，从而他们可研究管理者对ETR重要性的定位。比如，管理者的把重心放在维持EPR的平稳，并将其保持在适当偏低的位置。自由裁量权允许管理者制作外汇所得税支出报表，从而可提供有效审核这一问题的方法。

Sixth, one of the distinctive features of accounting for income taxes is that the tax expense occurs below the computation of operating income on the income statement. In fact, some of the total tax expense falls below net income because items, such as income from discontinued operations and other comprehensive income, are reported net of tax. Consequently, manipulation of the tax expense account does not affect operating income and sometimes does not affect net income, key items on the income statement. It would be interesting to have empirical evidence that speaks to the importance of the placement of the tax expense on the income statement on management’s choice to manage the tax ex pense account.

第六，所得税会计的一个独到之处在于，计算营业收益，制作损益表，然后计算税收支出。事实上，有时总税收支出低于净收入，因为一些条款，如停止经营的收入和其它综合收入的报表为税后净额。所以，操纵税收支出账户不影响营

业收入、净收入以及损益表上的关键条款。将税收支出安置在财务报表上对管理者选择管理税收支出账户极为重要，找出支持这一点的实证是很有趣的。

Seventh, the extant literature largely ignores the IRS audit implications of managing the tax accounts. In light of the adversarial role of the IRS, the tax accounts provide a setting for important and interesting questions that cannot be easily studied using other accounts. For example, how does this adversarial relation affect earnings management in general? Does it reduce the overall attractiveness of the tax accounts as earnings management options? Which parts of the tax account are less attractive management options, given the adversarial relation? How does it affect the nature of the earnings management behavior? Are different firms affected differently (e.g., the largest firms, which are audited each year by the IRS, versus smaller firms, which are only audited every few years)?

第七，现有文献都极大地忽视了管理税收账户的IRS的审计含义。由于IRS 会产生对抗作用，税收账户为重要并有趣的问题提供了解决办法，使用其它账户是很难做到这一点的。例如，这种对抗关系是如何影响盈余管理的呢？这会减少将税收账户作为盈余管理选择的盈利吗？考虑到这一对抗关系，税收账户的哪些部分是不那么具有吸引力的管理选择呢？这种对抗关系是怎样影响盈余管理行为的性质的呢？不同的公司受影响的程度不同吗（比如，每年都接受IRS审计的大公司与那些几年才接受一次审计的小公司）？

Finally, if the U.S. ultimately adopts the IFRS rules related to accounting for income taxes, the decision to elect permanent reinvestment could be interesting to study. Under GAAP (IFRS), undistributed earnings must be reinvested in the foreign subsidiary ‘‘indefinitely’’ (‘‘for the foreseeable future’’) in order to el ect permanent reinvestment. Generally, ‘‘indefinitely’’ is interpreted as permanent, whereas ‘‘for the foreseeable future’’ is interpreted as a much shorter period. Thus, if IFRS is adopted, it could be interesting to see what happens to the magnitude of the amount of earnings labeled as permanently reinvested.

第八，如果美国最终采用了与所得税相关的IFRS规则，那么选择长期投资的决定将是一个有趣的研究话题。根据GAAP（IFRS），为了选择长期再投资，必须将未分发的盈余“无限期地”（“因为未来不可预知”）投资到外国子公司中。通常情况下，“无限期地”理解为永久，而“因为未来不可预知”理解为较短的时期内。因此，如果采用IRS，那么称作长期再投资的盈余数量会发展到何种程度呢？

Closing remarks

结语

This paper reviews and evaluates research about tax information in financial statements. Historically largely overlooked by both financial accounting and tax researchers, no area of tax research in accounting is presently attracting more scholarly attention than is accounting for income taxes. Applying skills developed in and questions imported from mainstream financial accounting research, the empirical studies have concentrated on the role of the tax accounts in earnings management and the extent to which the market prices the tax information that is contained in the financial statements.

本文回顾并评估了财务报表中有关税收信息的研究。在历史上，财务会计与税收研究人员均忽视了对会计中的税收研究，而今天，这一领域比所得税会计更受学者关注。通过应用主流财务会计研究中的技巧与问题，实证研究将重心放在了以下两个方面，即纳税账户在盈余管理中的角色以及市场对财务报表中税收信息的定价程度。

AFIT studies have been conducted primarily by accounting scholars with expertise in both financial accounting and taxation, a sufficiently rare combination that has served as a barrier to researching this complex area of financial reporting. We hope that this review will encourage, expedite, and guide further AFIT study. We also hope that this paper will expose scholars from finance, economics, law, and other fields to the ongoing AFIT work, interest them in both producing and consuming its knowledge, and guide them toward questions of interest. We conclude our review with a summary of our findings.

大部分AFTI研究由会计学者进行，他们精通财务会计与税收，这种结合极为罕见，阻碍了对财务报表这一复杂领域的研究。我们的期望是本文将鼓励、促进并引导未来的AFIT研究，此外，我们还希望本文能够帮助金融、经济、法律及其它领域的学者了解当前的AFIT研究，引起他们对发展并接受相关知识，激发他们的兴趣。接下来我们将总结发现，结束讨论。

The paper begins with a discussion of four features of AFIT that distinguish it from other financial reporting areas (all firms pay taxes, an important user of the tax information in the financial statements is an adversary—the taxing authorities, the tax information can serve as an alternative measure of income, and income tax expense is not a component of operating income). Following a brief overview of the rules that govern AFIT, we review studies of earnings management using the tax accounts and find the evidence is mixed. Managers appear to use the tax accounts to meet or beat analysts’ forecasts, but not to meet or beat prior earnings, smooth earnings, or to increase a big bath.

本文首先讨论了将AFIT与其它财务报表领域区分开来的四个特征（即所有的公司都上税、使用财务报表信息主要用户为其敌对方—税务当局、税收信息可用于代替收入的计算法，以及所得税支出并非营业收入的组成部分）。简要综述了AFIT规则后，我们回顾了使用纳税账户进行盈余管理的研究，发现了形形色色的证据。管理者使用纳税账户来达到或超过分析者的预期，而不是达到或超过先前盈余、稳定的盈余或者增加巨额冲销。

We also evaluate the existing literature that connects BTDs and earning characteristics. These studies find an association between book-tax differences and several different characteristics of earnings, namely earnings growth and earnings persistence. Given the paucity of literature in this area, more work is needed and we provide some specific suggestions.

我们还评价了连接BTD与盈余特征的现有文献。这些研究发现，会计税收差异与盈余的不同特征（即盈余增长与盈余稳定性）之间存在一定的关联。鉴于本领域缺乏相关文献，更多的研究亟待开展，我们对此也提出了一些具体的建议。

Next, we address the pricing of the tax accounts where the evidence is not consistent. Because the tax accounts provide information about an alternative measure of income, the tax accounts should provide useful incremental information to the

market that it cannot get elsewhere. However, given the limited number of studies and significant research design limitations, the implications are inconclusive in this area.

然后，我们选择了纳税账户的定价进行研究，但其证据不够充分。由于纳税会计提供了替代收入测量的相关信息，因此纳税账户应为市场提供增值信息，这些信息无法从别处获得。但是，考虑到研究的数量有限，重大的研究设计存在缺陷，因此给我们的启示具有不确定性。

In conclusion, AFIT research has blossomed in the last few years, vastly expanding our knowledge about the use of the tax information in the financial statements. Assuming a framework develops to better interpret extant empirical findings and guide future study, we see many questions that still need resolution. We look forward to research that leads to a deeper understanding of the tax accounts in the financial statements.

总之，AFIT研究在过去几年发展迅速，大大地延展了我们关于使用财务报表中税收信息的知识。如果要开发一种体系，更好地解释现有实证发现并引领未来的研究，那么我们会发现还有很多问题需要解决。我们期待研究不断发展，从而让我们能够更好地理解财务报表中的税收账户。