Garmendia-Lazcano, AitorBaselga Pascual, Laura2024-12-192024-12-192024-07-10Garmendia-Lazcano, A., & Baselga-Pascual, L. (2024). The role of regional tax autonomy, firm size, and business groups in tax avoidance: evidence from Spain. Spanish Journal of Finance and Accounting / Revista Española de Financiación y Contabilidad. https://doi.org/10.1080/02102412.2024.23774480210-241210.1080/02102412.2024.2377448http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14454/2185This paper investigates the influence of regional tax autonomy, firm size, and business group affiliation on corporate tax burden in a large sample of Spanish firms, including non-listed firms, from 2007 to 2016. Our findings reveal that firms located in tax- autonomous regions exhibit lower effective corporate tax rates (ETR), providing new empirical support for the horizontal tax com-petition theory. Additionally, we identify a positive relationship between firm size and corporate tax burden, aligning with the political cost theory. Furthermore, we find that group-affiliated firms face a higher ETR than independent firms, and that group affiliation attenuates the differences in the tax burden experienced by large and small firms.engFirm sizeBusiness groupEffective tax rateTax autonomySpainTax avoidancejournal article2024-12-192332-0753