Digitalization of Financial Reporting through XBRL and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Indonesia

Corporate tax avoidance has been the subject of international debate since the Enron scandal and has raised awareness of the need for greater transparency in financial markets. Efforts have been made to strengthen financial reporting requirements and meet the needs of investors and other stakeholders, including digitalization of financial reporting through Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). This study examines the impact of the mandatory adoption of XBRL on corporate tax avoidance. We tested our predictions using a panel dataset of Indonesian firms listed on the IDX stock exchange. Based on available information in the DATASTREAM database covering the 2013-2017 period, we used two proxies for tax avoidance i.e., GAAP effective tax rate and current effective tax rate. We estimated multiple regression model including industry and year fixed effects. The results show that XBRL implementation has reduced corporate tax avoidance. These findings suggest that improving corporate transparency through XBRL could play a deterrent tool to corporate tax avoidance. The results of this study should be useful to tax authorities and accounting standard setters supporting the benefits of digitalizing financial reporting and continuing to complete XBRL taxonomies around the world.