Title: Digital Transformation, Enterprise Tax Burden and Enterprise Development: Evidence from Changes in Enterprise Business Scope

Speaker: Zou Jie, Associate Researcher of the School of Economics, Shandong University; obtained a doctoral degree from the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University in 2023. His research fields are public economics, corporate finance and the application of artificial intelligence in economic issues. His articles have been published in Economic Research Journal and BAR, and he presides over one youth project each of the National Natural Science Foundation and the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation.

Abstract: This paper proposes a new method to measure the digital transformation of enterprises—digital transformation of business scope—and empirically examines the impact of this digital transformation on enterprise tax burden using the dynamic difference-in-differences method. The results show that after enterprises add digital industries to their business scope, the effective income tax rate decreases significantly by 3% - 4%, and the total cash flow tax burden decreases by 0.7% - 1%. Mechanism verification shows that the digital transformation of business scope enables enterprises to obtain more tax incentives and also makes it easier for enterprises to reduce their tax burden through cross-regional tax avoidance. This indicates that the impact of digital transformation on enterprise tax burden has both a positive side of reasonable tax reduction and a side of enterprises strengthening tax planning to avoid taxes. Therefore, the tax burden inequality generated under the digital economy needs to be viewed dialectically. Furthermore, this paper reveals that the tax burden inequality under the digital economy has a negative externality on the operating performance of traditional enterprises. The research conclusions of this paper indicate that we should continue to use tax incentives to promote the sound development of the digital economy, while standardizing the tax payment behavior of enterprises and reducing the adverse competition caused by the enhanced tax avoidance ability of some enterprises under the digital economy.

Date & time: 22 May 2025, 12:15

Venue: B321, Zhixin Building, Central Campus, Shandong University