An Investigation of Tax Incentives for Membership in Business Groups

Holdings and business groups compared with independent firms have more incentives to shift their income for tax purposes and have higher flexibility for transferring income through intragroup transactions by managing transfer pricing between each other. Also, member of business groups have the ability to allocate income between taxable and tax-exempt firms to pay less taxes. This research aims to identify and explain the factors which affect tax management in holdings and business groups listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The proxy used to measure tax management is effective tax rate. To test the research hypotheses, we use OLS regression with panel data. After running the model on 144 listed firms in Tehran Stock Exchange during 1382-1391, the results show that the effective tax rate in member of business groups is lower compared with independent firms. The results also show that the effective tax rate in firms in diverse business groups is lower compared with other business group.