Heavy polluting enterprises play a significant role in absorbing employment, promoting economic growth, and alleviating local fiscal pressure. However, their extensive development model has also brought about severe environmental issues, constraining the high-quality economic development. Therefore, how to promote heavy polluting enterprises to adapt to the trend of the times and achieve green and low-carbon development through digital transformation has become an important practical issue facing China. This study takes the Golden Tax Phase Ⅲ Project, a significant reform in tax collection and administration, as the policy shock. Utilizing Python technology to extract digital transformation data from annual reports of listed companies, and combining the frontier triple difference model in the field of environmental economics, it systematically examines the impact of big data tax administration on the digital transformation of heavy polluting enterprises and its mechanisms. The main findings are as follows: First, the Golden Tax Phase Ⅲ Project significantly accelerates the digitalization process of heavy polluting enterprises. This conclusion remains valid after gradually incorporating corporate financial performance and governance control variables, as well as after multidimensional clustering robustness checks. Second, mechanism analysis indicates that the Golden Tax Phase Ⅲ Project achieves dual-wheel driving through the “construction effect” and “administration effect”: on the one hand, it directly increases corporate digital investment by improving digital infrastructure; on the other hand, it promotes transformation by enhancing corporate risk-taking ability and optimizing human capital structure. At the same time, the “financing unbundling effect” further strengthens enterprises’ willingness to undergo digital transformation. Third, heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy effect is more significant in local tax administration units, high-tax-burden enterprises, and enterprises in the growth or maturity stages. The innovations of this study are reflected in three aspects First, focusing on the digital transformation of heavy polluting enterprises, it incorporates big data tax administration reform and the green transformation of heavy polluting enterprises into a unified analytical framework for the first time, enriching the literature on the economic effects of digital tax administration and providing practical references for the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises in the digital era. Second, based on the characteristic fact of “implicit incentives” in the tax administration of heavy polluting enterprises, a triple difference model is constructed using the Golden Tax Phase Ⅲ Project as a quasi-natural experiment to accurately identify the impact of digital tax administration on enterprise development. This effectively alleviates the endogeneity problem caused by differences in industry characteristics, expands the application scenarios of the triple difference model, and improves the identification strategy for the economic effects of digital tax administration. Third, the theoretical analysis starts from the “construction effect” and “administration effect” of digital tax collection and management, focusing on revealing the spillover effect of the “financing unbundling effect” of digital tax administration on enterprise digital transformation, thereby deepening relevant theoretical understanding. This study provides a new perspective for the research on tax informatization and enterprise digital transformation by expanding the analysis of the impact of digital taxation on enterprise digital transformation. It offers practical guidance for the transformation and development of heavy polluting enterprises and the advancement of the “dual carbon” goals. Additionally, it provides theoretical support and decision-making reference for utilizing digital technologies such as big data to deepen tax administration reforms, thereby empowering the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises through reform.
ZHANGK Z, OUYANGJ, LIW J. Why tax cuts cannot reduce the corporate burden: information technology, taxation capacity and corporate tax evasion[J].Economic Research Journal,2020,55(3):116-132.
YANH H, LIX Y, LIUJ. Research on the impact of digital upgrade of tax enforcement on enterprise risk-taking[J].Public Finance Research,2022,43(9):89-103.
SUNX J, ZHAIS P, YUS. How does big data in tax enforcement affect corporate earnings management: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment on the “third phase of golden tax project” [J].Accounting Research,2021,42(1):67-81.
XIP H. Fiscal incentives, environmental preference and the horizontal environmental management: from the perspective of barganing power of major taxpayers[J].China Industrial Economics,2017,35(11):100-117.
LIP S, CHENY Y. Environmental regulation, bargaining power of enterprises and green total factor productivity[J].Finance & Trade Economics,2019,40(11):144-160.
CHENS X, LIUF, LUS F. Information-based powerful management and self-enforcement of tax compliance[J].Journal of Finance and Economics,2023,49(2):34-48.
LIUH L, ZHANGL L, XIEJ. Tax enforcement digitization and the governance of corporate related party transactions[J].Journal of Management World,2022,38(6):158-176.
FANY, LIH N. Tax administration, tax compliance and tax preferences: evaluation of the policy effect of the third phase of the golden tax project[J].Finance & Trade Economics,2020,41(5):51-66.
CAIC, LING Y, WANGH Q. Tax enforcement and enterprise financing constraints: an analysis of policy effect based on the third phase of the golden tax[J].Accounting Research,2021,42(5):107-120.
FANR, SUNX J. Can reducing tax avoidance inhibit the financialization of enterprises: evidence from the “golden tax phase III” quasi-natural experiment[J].Chinese Review of Financial Studies,2022,14(4):79-101.
LIJ J, WANGB J. Tax enforcement, enterprise tax burden and total factor productivity: evidence from the golden tax project Ⅲ quasi-natural experiment[J].China Journal of Economics,2022,9(4):167-192.
ZHANGM, TONGL J, XUH R. Social network and corporate risk-taking: based on the empirical evidence of listed companies in China[J].Journal of Management World,2015,31(11):161-175.
LIUJ K, XIAOY Y. China’s environmental protection tax and green innovation: incentive effect or crowding-out effect?[J].Economic Research Journal,2022,57(1):72-88.
YUANC, XIAOT S, GENGC X, et al. Digital transformation and division of labor between enterprises: vertical specialization or vertical integration[J].China Industrial Economics,2021,39(9):137-155.
[50]
BOUBAKRIN, COSSETJ, SAFFARW. The role of state and foreign owners in corporate risk-taking: evidence from privatization[J].Journal of Financial Economics,2013,108(3):641-658.
HUANGH B, ZHAIS P, CHENJ N. Corporate life cycle, financing methods and financing constraints: based on the moderating effect research of investor sentiment[J].Journal of Financial Research,2016,59(7):96-112.