Does Independent Commissioners Play a Moderating Role in Relationship Financial Ratios and Financial Distress with Tax Avoidance?

Abstract

Indonesia implements a self-assessment system so that taxpayers are trusted to calculate, pay, and report their own taxes in accordance with applicable tax provisions. Companies as taxpayers do tax avoidance by taking the advantage of loopholes in tax regulations without violating applicable regulations in order to pay taxes in the minimum amount. Therefore, this research is conducted to test the effect of profitability, leverage, and financial distress on tax avoidance with independent commissioners as a moderating variable. The population used in this research is all manufacturing companies which are listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange period 2019-2021. The 243 samples are taken by purposive sampling after outliers. The data used are secondary where annual reports and financial statements are obtained from the company’s official websites. This research uses SPSS and the analytical techniques are multiple linear regression and moderated regression analysis. The results of this research prove that profitability has a negative significant effect on tax avoidance, leverage has a positive significant effect on tax avoidance, financial distress does not have a significant effect on tax avoidance, and independent commissioners is unable to moderate the effects of profitability, leverage, and financial distress on tax avoidance.