Corporate social responsibility board committee and tax disclosure

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) board committees and tax disclosure. Using a unique hand-collected dataset from CSR board committees of European-listed companies, we provide several important contributions. First, we document that the presence of a CSR board committee is positively associated with tax disclosure. Second, we find that the membership of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on a CSR board committee is negatively associated with tax disclosure, while CSR board committees chaired by a female director are associated with increased levels of tax disclosure. We also show that firms with CSR board committees whose members have higher educational backgrounds are associated with enhanced tax disclosure levels. Additional analyses indicate that companies with better tax disclosure transparency are less likely to engage in aggressive tax avoidance strategies. All these results support the importance of a CSR board committee, as well as its members’ characteristics, for corporate transparency and more effective market discipline.