The Moderating Role of Sustainability Report Assurance on the Association between Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Aggressiveness in Thailand’s Listed Firms

Abstract

Purpose of the research is to investigate the relationship among social responsibility (SCR) reporting and tax evasion in emerging economies like Thailand. Awake of social responsibility reporting in emerging economies is the reason to conduct this research, although these reports are disclosed voluntarily. In underdeveloped countries, tax evasion and investor’s safety are common issues and these practices may be considered to hide an opportunistic behavior in social responsibility reporting. This investigation is aimed to evaluate the moderating role of assurance reporting of CSR reporting on the relationship on the CSR and tax aggression. The parameters used for the measurement of sustainability reporting in this study are derived from global reporting framework (GRI). This analysis of the study is based on the sample of 116 listed firms operating in Thailand for the period 2014-2018. The study used panel data consisting of 580 observations and performed Feasible Generalized least square (FGLS) regression method to test the hypotheses of the study. The outcomes o the study provided empirical evidence that CSR reporting is positively related to tax aggressiveness, further findings disclose that this association is moderated by CSR assurance. Moreover, research findings illustrate that CSR reporting signify that firms are inclined towards social welfare but do not hold the moral values in the corporate environment.