Corporate Financial Characteristics and Tax Avoidance: The Moderating Role of Firm Size

Nayla Inayah Marwan

doi:10.61987/jemr.v5i5.3136

Authors

Nayla Inayah Marwan Universitas Tanjungpura

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61987/jemr.v5i5.3136

Keywords:

Tax Avoidance, Profitability, Firm Size

Abstract

Tax avoidance remains an important corporate tax issue because firms may seek to reduce tax liabilities through legally permissible tax planning, particularly when financial and operational characteristics create opportunities for tax management. This study examines the effects of leverage, profitability, and capital intensity on tax avoidance and investigates whether firm size moderates these relationships. A quantitative causal design was employed using secondary data from audited annual financial reports of 35 property companies observed during 2021–2024, resulting in 112 firm-year observations selected through purposive sampling. Tax avoidance was measured using the Effective Tax Rate (ETR), while leverage, profitability, capital intensity, and firm size were measured using DER, ROA, the proportion of fixed assets to total assets, and the natural logarithm of total assets, respectively. Panel-data regression and Moderated Regression Analysis were conducted using EViews 13 after model-selection procedures. The results show that leverage does not significantly affect tax avoidance, whereas profitability and capital intensity have significant effects. Firm size significantly moderates the relationship between profitability and tax avoidance but does not moderate the relationships involving leverage or capital intensity. These findings highlight the importance of profitability, asset structure, and firm size in understanding corporate tax-management behavior.

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