Ridwan, K., 2025. Accounting for income tax uncertainty and corporate tax avoidance: International evidence. WU International Taxation Research Paper Series No. 2025-05. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5167934 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5167934.
van Thiel, S., Akhter, M., Barreau, F., Bauer, C., Boel, K., Doeleman, R., Emanuele, V., Erokhin, D., Hidayat, A., Malan, M.T., Ridwan, K., Siahaan, F. and Vuluku, G., 2025. Tax policy in OECD countries: Past experiences and future directions. WU International Taxation Research Paper Series No. 2025-06. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5209582 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5209582.
1. Accounting for Income Tax Uncertainty on Corporate Tax Avoidance: International Evidence
Author: Khairunnisa Ridwan
This study investigates whether the accounting for uncertain tax positions (IFRIC 23) under a principles-based reporting standard curbs corporate tax avoidance across OECD and EU countries. IFRIC 23 provides guidance on recognition, measurement, and disclosure of uncertain tax positions in financial statements. Under this interpretation, firms must assume that tax authorities have full knowledge of the tax information reported in the financial statements. As the interpretation increases transparency, it is also expected to limit managerial discretion to exploit aggressive tax positions in financial reporting. Consistent with prediction, I find some evidence that IFRIC 23’s adoption decreases corporate tax avoidance. The effect strengthens in jurisdictions with higher tax audit intensity. However, I also document that affected firms, when I compared with U.S. firms subject to FIN 48, engage in more tax avoidance, indicating a weaker deterrent effect of IFRIC 23. Overall, this study offers insights that tax disclosure requirements under financial reporting can help curb corporate tax avoidance.
R&R at Accounting and Business Research
Presented at:
Virtual Doctoral Tax Seminar 2023, VHB Tagung 2024 in Lueneburg, EAA Annual Congress 2024 in Bucharest, Accounting and Business Research (ABR) - Deakin University Accounting Research Conference 2024.
2. How Do Accelerated Depreciation Rules Affect Financial (Un)constrained Firms? Crisis and Non-Crisis Comparison
Author: Matthias Petutschnig and Khairunnisa Ridwan
We examine the impact of accelerated depreciation rules on investment and corporate risk-taking in financially constrained and unconstrained firms across European Union Member States during three key periods: the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and non-crisis period. We obtain financial data from historical Orbis data (Moodys) from 2001-2022. Using a country-cohort DID, our results suggest that accelerated depreciation rules are only effective to stimulate investment and risk-taking during the non-crisis period.
Presented at:
2nd Ghent International Taxation Conference, EAA Annual Congress 2025 in Rome, 7th Vienna Doctoral Consortium, and 118th National Tax Association Annual Conference on Taxation.
3. The Effect of Anti-Profit Shifting Rules on Cross-border M&A Activities
Author: Osaid Alshamleh, Harald Amberger, and Khairunnisa Ridwan
We study the effect of different anti-profit shifting rules on cross border M&A from 2000 to 2023 across EU and OECD countries. We find that stricter anti profit shifting regulation reduces (1) the volume of M&A deals and (2) the likelihood of a target firm being acquired. We find some evidence that stricter anti-profit shifting rules reduces cross-border M&A activity.
Presented at: EngageEU Workshop on Tax and Sustainability 2025, 2nd Ghent Conference on International Taxation, EAA 47th Annual Congress 2025, and 15th EIASM Conference on Current Research in Taxation
4. Uncertain Tax Positions and IFRIC 23: Evidence from UK, Australia, and New Zealand
Author: Rodney J. Brown, Youngdeok Lim, and Khairunnisa Ridwan
We explore IFRIC 23 disclosures made between 2018 and 2023 by publicly listed firms in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. We manually hand-collected data from firm’s annual reports. Surprisingly, we find relatively few firms in Australia and New Zealand disclose substantive qualitative and quantitative information about their UTPs while UK firms disclose more, on average, compared to firms in Australia and New Zealand.