Business Commons^™

Deferred Taxes And Cash Flow Predictability, Kaleb Norwald, Jake Thornock

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Companies are sometimes required to pay taxes on events that have not yet occurred. This tax is called a deferred tax asset or DTA. These companies will receive a refund on this special type of tax, but the refund won’t be dispersed until years later. (Sometimes, this can take up to twenty years.) The slow reimbursement of a tax refund inhibits a company’s ability to grow, hire, and innovate as it unnecessarily constrains cash flow. Additionally, since this type of tax can be 7-13% of annual operating profits, the refunds are often very sizeable amounts.

The reimbursement process can be …