Journal of Tax Research

---

Identifying high-risk tax returns and locating them in the sample to be audited is of a great significance in any taxation system. In a “Risk-Based Audit Selection” system (RAS), one of the most important criteria of identifying high-risk tax returns is that of financial ratios affecting taxable income. The present research has aimed at identifying and prioritizing ratios involved in determining whether or not a given tax return is assumed to be a high-risk one. Through a questionnaire-based survey study including the analysis of the gathered data on the basis of an AHP technique, it has been concluded that such financial ratios as “net income”, “earnings per share” (EPS), “stock return”, and “working capital return’ which are normally calculated on the basis of the firms’ income, do influence on the taxable income and as such, are of great importance in deciding on risk degrees of tax returns.

---

Due to the problems such as large and increasing volume of tax returns, lack of pre-assessment, time limit and lack of standards for tax auditing, limited manpower, the arbitrary judgment in this field and failure to provide tax returns by some taxpayers, a new approach is needed to solve these problems. The present research aims to apply the most efficient up-to-date methods and techniques of the world (chaos theory and artificial neural network theory) by which Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) would be capable of computerized assessment of tax returns on the basis of the difference percentage between declared and forecasted pre-tax incomes and select tax returns with the greatest risks and refer them to the tax auditors for auditing. In this regard, the chaotic time series variable would be forecasted by artificial neural network non-linear model. The required data has been gathered through a library method. Parsportfolio Data Management Software has been used for collecting the data of companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, the research has used the statistics published by Iranian Statistics Centre (ISC), Central Bank of Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI) and (INTA).

---

Tax payment results in reducing profits and remained cash for other stakeholders including shareholders of a company. So, naturally companies and its shareholders have motives to take some measures to evade tax. Effective strategies for tax evasion involves use of a complex and ambiguous reporting system. Since, Tax evasion can create opportunities for managers to pursue activities that are designed to hide bad news and accumulate them within firm. When the accumulated negative information , release into the market leading to stock price crash. The main propose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between tax avoidance and the future stock price crash risk in Tehran stock exchange. To do this, two main hypotheses and three subsidiary ones were specified and tested, a sample was selected among the listed companies in TSE during 1380-1388(2001-2009). Also, to test the hypotheses, the method of logistic regression and the model of pooling data were applied. The results indicated that, there is a positive relationship between tax evasion and future stock price crash risk.

---

One of the main measures‌ taken by the Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) is to move towards new ITs for designing and implementing proper collection of taxes as an enormous elastic revenue resource. For implementing electronic tax collection, besides technological and legal infrastructures, citizens' acceptance is a key point in developing electronic structures. Therefore, this paper by using descriptive and field study method is trying to answer whether taxpayers embrace electronic tax services. In this study, Davis Model which is the same as IT acceptance model is used and the independent variables include the easiness of using the internet system, the advantages and risk of using the internet system, the access to the technological facilities and the demographic specifications the dependant variable is the inclination of the taxpayers for using the electronic tax services. The results indicate that the electronic tax services acceptance by taxpayers has positive and direct relationship with the variables like the easiness, the advantages of using the internet system, the access to the technologic facilities and the demographic specifications and has inverse relationship with the risk of using the internet system.

---

This paper is to survey risk-based tax audit and it’s determinants by emphasizing on taxpayers size and experience of other countries which is conducted through audit plan based on risk and tax compliance management, calculation and assessment methods of risk with proper services and education to taxpayers. According to this research model, tax administration can use risk-based audit plus external and internal data such as custom, bank, insurance and previous tax return data to confirm taxpayers’ information by means of risk- based analysis and Information Technology (IT), statistical methods and current software like data mining in order to risk Scoring of each taxpayer. High and low risk taxpayers can be detected by risk- based scoring system and providing profile for each taxpayer which lead to maximum tax income with Tax equity and improvement satisfaction level of taxpayers by focusing on high risk taxpayer regard to resource limitation

---

It is required to apply special audit methods for value-added tax as a new tax system with the structure different from the old tax systems. There are a lot of researches on tax audit in different tax bases except VAT, as it is a new base in Iran. The present research has attempted to study methods for determining VAT audit risks in other countries and compare them with the current methods in this tax in Iran. The findings have indicated that in some countries in the first years of implementation of VAT system, buying and selling invoices cross-check is used to develop compliance, identification and recognition of risky taxpayers and removal of weaknesses in audit processes. In the next years of VAT implementation it is required to use sampling and random selection and even transaction class selection methods. Other research findings show that IT system, staff education and tax system integration are used as supportive actions for reducing VAT audit risks.

---

  Abstract

  Taxpayers risk-based audit selection and audit planning requires identification of each taxpayer’s risk which in turn requires identification of factors affecting risks. There is no complete and comprehensive model for the selection of taxpayer based on the assessment of the risk level and selection of the taxpayer for audit in Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA). In this study, 15 independent variables as the influencing factors on corporate compliance risk have been identified and tested in the form of three main hypotheses and 14 sub-hypotheses. These independent variables have significant relationships with the taxpayers’ compliance risk independent variable among 228 corporates of the Tax Affairs General Directorate of West of Tehran. The different tests appropriate to the type of independent variables were used to test the hypotheses.

---

Risk management is one of the tax compliance instruments which are aimed to improve taxpayers’ compliance. In this view, effective factors of taxpayers risk are identified, meanwhile taxpayers are classified in different levels and effective tax strategies which are coordinated with each level of risks are chosen and utilized in order to institutionalize rendering services and suitable education, self-assessment and voluntary compliance. The size of taxpayers considered to be one of the main factors affecting their risks. Indeed, developing and implementing effective and targeted strategies for tax compliance regardless of size taxpayers will not be possible. In this research, the independent variable, the taxpayer size, and its significance relationship to the dependent variable, the risk of taxpayer compliance, were tested in two forms which were distributed among 210 legal taxpayers of Western Tehran Tax organization. In order to test the significance relationship of the taxpayer size variable, the Kruskal-Wallas non-parametric one-way variance was used. At the end, the test showed that the taxpayer size variable bore an inverse significant relationship to the dependent variable, the risk running by taxpayer. Furthermore the inverse relationship between taxpayer size and the risk running by corporate operating in different manufacturing, service, trading, and contracting sectors have also been examined. In this regard, we witnessed an inverse significant relationship between taxpayer size and the risk of compliance simply for the taxpayers operating in trading sector. In other words, the risk of their compliance would diminish as the size of the taxpayers operating in the trading sector grows.

---

The Economic Development Plan was proposed as a comprehensive program for solving problems and realizing the 20-year Vision of the Country and the Fifth Development Plan of I.R. Iran. Given the continuity of the gap between potential and actual taxes, tax revenues have not yet found their proper positions in the government's economic and financial system. In order to overcome this shortcoming, bearing in mind the importance of taxes in the economic development, the tax system was selected as one of the seven axes of the Economic Development Plan. A tax reform plan was devised in three main areas, namely the reform of tax laws and regulations, the implementation of Tax Administration and Reform Automation (TARA) program and a full implementation of the VAT system. One of the objectives of the TARA program is to ensure that all two-way interactions of taxpayers and INTA are through electronic means, not in presence. The Delphi method has largely been employed in this study as a tool for problem solving by surveying experts’ attitudes in many cases and in various research works. Delphi is a method of "prioritization" to get a collective agreement on the relative importance of issues. So, engaged in the Delphi research phases of this study, implementation of the E-ris software at the Tax Directorate General of South Tehran, were explored by following four steps, namely the intellectual storm, limiting, prioritizing and analyzing the options. The study indicated that the problems as software low slow; inadequate training and lack of update, suitable equipments and up-to-date computer had brought about the existing problems with running the E-ris software.

---

One of the most important problems and challenges of the VAT system is formation of paper companies which lacks credit and incurring great financial losses for the country’s tax system. The paper companies have no existence and no economic activities and make disorder in economy of the country and they prevent economic transparency. The main objective of the present study is to identify the factors shaping the formation of paper companies and its relation to the risk of value added tax auditing: this research is descriptive survey and its type is correlation, and the structural equation model is used for analysis.  In this way, data collection inventories are used for paper companies, un- real selling and auditing risk. The statistical community of this study is the managers and experts, and companies called for the first stage of registration of the VAT registration system in Tehran. The findings indicate that the effect of paper companies on VAT auditing risk is significant and the graph in the standard mode also shows that VAT auditing risk is 82 percent and we can trace paper companies at 97% of the forefront of dubious transactions. Therefore managers can reduce the risk of VAT auditing by designing appropriate conditions and improve paper companies’ identification.

---

According to Agency Theory, one of the objectives of earning management is, to reduce liabilities and tax payments through minimizing the effective tax rate. Either, by short-term and opportunistic goals or by reducing long-term taxes and creating firm value, tax strategies reduce the effective tax rate. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of effective tax rates on tax persistence and future tax risk of the firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange for the period of 2008 to 2017. The data has been analyzed using a sample of 159 firms which are selected through Systematic Elimination Method. We found that firms having higher tax rates have higher tax persistence.

---

Abstract
Today, small businesses play a role in the economic growth of the country, and given the remarkable capacity of their businesses and their contributions to payroll taxes, metrics and increases. Risk in these firms will have a significant impact on tax revenues, so estimating and analyzing the risk associated with economic agents is one of the pressing needs of the tax system in the country. Develop an improved model of risk analysis of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) after identifying the factors affecting the level of tax audit risk of those firms and presenting them. During the years 1396 till 1397 model is a risk-based audit.
In line with this research, based on the views of tax experts and the IACPA, first we use the Delphi technique and the PESTEL model in identifying factors affecting compliance level and the fuzzy network analysis process combination method in measuring compliance level. And, identifying the factors affecting the level of risk and presenting the SMEs risk-based audit model in Iran, and the final selected indicators for assessing the level of tax payer's risk based on the opinions of the tax experts and the Iranian Society of Certified Accountants. Questionnaires were conducted in the form of pre-designed questionnaires and by providing a preliminary list of effective criteria on The Risk-Based Audit Model for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) was proposed for the Risk-Based Tax Audit.
Finally, in order to design the coping strategies, the behavioral analysis was performed and then the strategies needed to reduce and minimize the identified risks.

---

The present study identifies business tax compliance risks using the grounded theory approach. The statistical population of the study is the elite and experts in the field of taxation who have been selected from the snowball or chain sampling method for the interview according to the purpose of the research. After receiving the opinion of 23 elites and experts in 2019, 28 cases of business tax compliance risks were identified and according to the open and central coding method, risks were classified in 4 sections: financial events registration, tax return, providing information and tax debt settlement. The prioritization of tax compliance risks using the hierarchical analysis method shows that in the non-registration of financial events section, the highest risk of compliance is use of two ledgers in recording financial events. In the risk-taking section of the statement, the most important risk is the non-submission of the statement. In the risk-taking section of taxpayers, the highest risk is failure to submit documents and ledgers on time. According to the results of this study, tax decision makers can fill the legal gaps in the sectors that have the highest risk of tax evasion and provide an executive guarantee to comply with it.

---

Taxation is the transfer of a part of the company’s profits to the government. According to the representation theory and despite of the information asymmetry between taxpayers and the government, companies naturally try to evade tax payments. On the other hand, governments, due to the existing limitations, are trying to collect maximum taxes by identifying high-risk taxpayers in accordance with the laws and regulations, and researchers in this field are also seeking to identify the factors affecting income tax evasion of legal persons. The aim of this study is to identify and prioritize these factors. In this study, fuzzy screening technique and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) analysis were used to identify the criteria and express the relationships between the criteria, after studying the literature of related researches and interviewing experts in the field of tax evasion. After analyzing the data, the variables were classified in eight different levels and drawn according to the ISM graph relationships. After MICMAC analysis, variables were divided into three groups of independent or key variables, communication and dependent, and no variables were placed in the self-governing variables group. Determining the relationships between variables and types of variables can lead to the better understanding of the subject and making appropriate decisions in the issue of income tax evasion of legal persons.

---

The value-added tax system in Iran has recently been focused due to its infancy, and consequently many aspects of its auditing quality, and strategies for achieving and improving the quality have not been explained. Also, it is important to asses VAT taxpayers risks in order to formulate an effective plan for selecting taxpayers for tax audit with the aim of increasing efficiency and effectiveness. So, this study has aimed at not only reviewing the necessity of audit risk in the VAT system, but also factors affecting an audit risks model to establish strong and effective audit plans that are able to timely identify cases of non-compliance and tax violations. In order to determine the statistical sample, the method of systematic elimination has been used and finally a sample of 80 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange for the period of 2016 and 2017 was examined. To test the research hypotheses, non-linear multiple regression analysis using logit method has been used. The results of this study show that among the effective factors on tax audit risk, taxpayer history and timely registration within the deadline set in the value added plan have a significant and inverse relationship with audit risk; Also, there is a significant and direct relationship between the size of taxpayer and tax refund, and requests with negative tax credit balance by taxpayers with audit risk, and also the results indicate that there is no significant relationship between taxpayer's top-level audit and taxpayer audit risk.
 

---

Since the direct taxes law was approved in 2014, and its article 97 was amended, the State tax affairs organization has been required to accept tax returns from individuals whose financial year begins on 29/07/2018, and to select and audit only a few of those returns, based on risk indicators. Using data mining methods, it is possible to determine high-risk taxpayers based on their information. In this way, high-risk taxpayers can be identified. During this study, tax returns information for legal entities from 2014 to 2016 was used in order to assess the level of risk.. Finally, the success of the methods has been evaluated. The algorithms used are vector machine classification methods, neural network support, decision tree and nearest neighbor. The results of the research confirm that the neural network algorithm is introduced as the best algorithm for estimating the risk of the statement.
 

---

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of taxpayers' attitude on their tax compliance. By knowing and understanding the effective factors in the decision-making of tax payers, it is possible to help increase tax compliance and increase tax revenue with training and techniques and even amending tax laws and regulations and processes. This research is of applied and descriptive-survey type, and from the point of view of the time dimension, it is one of the cross-sectional studies that was conducted in the solar year 2022 (tax year 2021). The statistical community of this research consists of financial managers, accountants and tax payers of businesses and companies that are required to submit tax returns in Kerman province. Since the statistical population of this research is assumed to be unlimited, in order to determine the sample size, Cochran's formula for the unlimited population was used and the sample size was estimated to be 384 people, and a questionnaire was used to collect data. The results of the research show that the attitude of taxpayers towards the complexity of the tax system has an inverse and significant relationship with tax compliance, and the complexity of the tax system causes less compliance by taxpayers, and also the attitude of taxpayers towards handling and tax crimes has a direct and significant relationship with tax compliance. That is, if taxpayers have this attitude that the probability of their fraud being discovered is low, or the amount of their tax crimes in case of detection is low, their tax compliance will decrease. Also, the results showed that the personal attitude of taxpayers towards taxes has a direct and meaningful relationship with tax compliance, and the more positive personal attitude taxpayers have towards paying taxes, and it is their moral duty, helping the government to do valuable work and paying in general If they consider tax as the right thing to do, their tax compliance rate is higher. Also, based on the research results, the relationship between risk aversion and loss aversion with tax compliance is direct and significant. Regarding the moderating role of taxpayers' personality type, the results show a significant effect of some personality types on the relationship between taxpayers' attitude, risk aversion and loss aversion with tax compliance.
 

---

The present study aims to investigate the impact of managerial risk-taking and the characteristics of reporting entities on aggressive tax reporting, emphasizing the role of independent auditors' reports. The statistical population of this research comprises reporting entities listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2013 to 2022. The required data were extracted from the official website of the Iranian Securities and Exchange Organization. Data analysis was performed using multivariate regression and econometric models. The findings indicate that managerial overconfidence and the profitability of reporting entities have a significant positive impact on aggressive tax reporting. Moreover, the quality of independent auditors' reports enhances the effects of profitability and debt ratio on aggressive tax reporting. The results show that managerial overconfidence, profitability, and the quality of independent auditors' reports exert a significant positive influence on aggressive tax reporting. However, optimism, short-sightedness, and debt ratio do not have a notable effect on this type of reporting. The findings of this research can help identify high-risk entities and pave the way for implementing fair tax collection.