Maja Putica
The objective of the current paper is to study the influence of the selected business and institutional determinants on the annual effective tax rates in banks in Serbia. Panel data regression models are applied on 113 observations, covering the period from 2017 to 2021, where the accounting and current effective tax rates are used as a measure of the actual tax burden. The results show that the effective tax rate in banks in Serbia is significantly below the statutory level. Furthermore, for each data set, the coefficients of changes in the effective tax rate are calculated, and the most adequate model is selected using the Hausman and Breusch-Pagan tests. In the first model, the biggest change in the effective tax rates is caused by change in leverage, merger and acquisition processes and the bank size. The presence of loan loss provisions in the model completely highlights the impact of profitability and leverage. Finally, in the last model, banks with a profit before tax can manage effective tax rates and tax burdens by regulating capitalization levels. The results of this study are of interest for economy creators and for business managers in banks, helping them in effective tax planning and managing the results.
Violeta Todorović, Jasmina Bogićević and Stefan Vržina
Income tax management includes a set of activities aimed at the legal minimization of income tax liabilities. Due to the tax law flexibility and cross-country differences in income taxation, banks may be in a position to significantly reduce their tax burden. An objective of the paper is to calculate the effective income tax burden of banks in the Republic of Serbia and examine the impact of income tax on banks’ operations. A research study conducted on a sample of banks between 2010 and 2016 shows that the effective income tax rate in banks is well below the statutory rate, mostly due to the use of government tax incentives. Furthermore, 25% of the observations have an effective tax rate of 0% despite the reported pre-tax income. The latest increase in the statutory tax rate in the Republic of Serbia has not had an impact on bank leverage, either in the short or long term. This may be an indicator that tax shield effects are not considered when the statutory tax rate is relatively low. The paper also finds that the effective tax rate is not correlated with bank profitability.
Temitope Olamide Fagbemi1, Taiwo Azeez Olaniyi1 and Ayobolawole Adewale Ogundipe2
Due to the multiplicity and overburdening of Nigeria’s tax system, the economic units in which systemically important banks (SIBs) are included implement the corporate strategies that identify the loophole which minimizes, postpones, or entirely avoids tax payments so as to reduce its negative effect on financial performance. Therefore, this study examined the corporate tax planning and financial performance of systemically important banks in Nigeria. Ex-post facto was adopted as the research design in this study, while Pooled OLS was used to analyze the data. This study has shown that the effective tax rate has a negative and significant impact on financial performance. Thin capitalization has a positive significant impact on the financial performance of SIBs in Nigeria, whereas capital intensity and the lease option have demonstrated an insignificant impact on the financial performance of SIBs in the country. The study concluded that corporate tax planning affects financial performance depending on the adopted tax planning strategies. Likewise, the study recommended, among other things, that the tax authorities should engage in the tax reforms whereby the corporate tax rate is to be adjusted, and that banks should engage in the activities that can reduce the effective tax rate.