We investigate the relationship between government deficits and corporate tax avoidance. We propose three channels through which government deficits can affect corporate tax avoidance, including (i) perceptions of expected tax enforcement, (ii) managers’ sense of civic duty, and (iii)...

We investigate how government deficits affect corporate-tax avoidance. We find that deficits are positively associated with corporate-tax avoidance, consistent with a deterioration in the government’s finances leading to expectations of weaker tax enforcement or future tax increases. To...