Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Tax Knowledge Diffusion Through Individual Auditor Network Ties: Evidence From China, Chee Yeow Lim, Terry Shevlin, Kun Wang, Yanping Xu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates whether network ties via sharing the same individual auditor influences the diffusion of tax avoidance knowledge. We find that firms with greater connection to low-tax firms through audit partners have lower effective tax rates (ETRs), consistent with tax avoidance knowledge being shared among firms through individual auditor network. The influence of audit network ties on tax avoidance at focal firms is stronger when partners’ tenure in low-tax firms is longer, and when partners have social connection with the top executives of focal firms. In addition, audit fees of focal firms with auditor network ties to low-tax firms …