Cross-Country Evidence on Earnings Quality and Corporate Tax Avoidance: The Moderating Role of Legal Institutions

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between earnings quality and corporate tax avoidance, while accounting for the strength of the legal institutional environment. We find robust evidence that high earnings quality mitigates corporate tax avoidance practices. Furthermore, we find that this association is particularly stronger when country-level legal institutions are powerful. Thus, this study should provide useful insights to academics, professionals as well as policy makers by emphasizing the vital role that accounting information quality could play in the fight against tax avoidance and the important support that legal institutions could provide in this regard.