How does going public affect firms’ tax obligations and tax planning? Using a panel of U.S. corporate tax return data from 1994 to 2018, we compare tax payments for firms that completed an IPO with those that filed for an IPO but later withdrew and remained private. We find that in the years...

We investigate the degree to which corporations can manipulate their accounting of expenses to avoid taxes, and estimate the corresponding effects for corporate tax bases. We exploit a unique corporate tax reform in Texas that replaced a 4.5% profits tax with a much broader 1% tax on gross...