Book-tax differences anormal e a não conformidade na divulgação do EBITDA e EBITDA ajustado

Abstract

Due to the potential to influence users’ perception of the company’s performance, researches have been carried out with the objective of evaluating the quality of measures not covered by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), hereinafter referred as non-GAAP measures in this work. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) is a relevant non-GAAP measure for organizations to communicate their performance in operational activity to the market. The disclosure of EBITDA is considered voluntary in Brazil, but it has a specific legal regulation that must be followed if the company wishes to disclose it the Instruction of the Securities Commission (ICVM, in Portuguese abbreviation) n. 527/2012, replaced by CVM Resolution n. 156/2022. Despite this situation being standardized, not all companies meet the criteria, with the possibility of announcing this measure in non-compliance with ICVM. However, the non-compliance in the disclosure of EBITDA by Brazilian public companies has not been examined considering its relationship with Abnormal Book-Tax Differences (ABTD), which can be used to reflect the management of accounting and/or tax results and comprises a metric of earnings quality. It is assumed that if managers find ways to manipulate accounting results, which can be transferred to EBITDA, they may seek to do the same with its disclosure. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the relationship between ABTD and non-compliance in the disclosure of EBITDA, according to the aforementioned Instruction. To meet this objective, the multilevel logistic model was implemented for the analysis of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA published by 340 companies in the CVM Reference Forms, from 2012 to 2021. The findings of this research demonstrate that greater management of accounting and/or tax results, reflected in ABTD, increases the probability of non-compliance in the announcement of EBITDA, which can vary between companies in the same sector and different ones. Additional tests corroborate that ABTD increases the probability of disclosing non-standardized items in EBITDA reconciliations and can be a relevant variable for assessing non-compliance with the aforementioned Instruction. The results of this study contribute to the accounting literature, demonstrating that information asymmetry, conflicts of interest, and the pursuit of various rewards, which are assumptions of ABTD, can lead to a succession of opportunistic behaviors and cause managers to fail to comply with regulations that encompass specific non-GAAP measures. This can result in lower-quality information regarding the objectives that should be achieved with compliance with the CVM standard. Additionally, the research results allow investors and analysts to evaluate the EBITDA reported by Brazilian public companies and provide insights for regulatory bodies, which can support the debate on the incorporation of EBITDA into GAAP.