| The "14th Five-Year Plan" for China,released in July 2020,emphasized the need to adhere to the concept of green development in economic and social development,and the report of the Communist Party of China’s 20 th National Congress,released in October 2022,emphasized the need to actively promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,make structural changes to the industrial structure,and achieve ecological priority,conservation and intensification,green and low-carbon development.It is obvious that taxes are important for corporate performance,industrial transformation and upgrading,and environmental protection since they may control how business processes behave and promote the healthy development of the economy and society.On January 1st,2018,China changed the collection of the "pollution discharge fee" in accordance with the "tax burden shifting" theory,so it is important to consider whether the implementation of the environmental protection tax policy can encourage the technological innovation of polluting enterprises and achieve low-carbon environmental protection development and how its financial performance will be affected in the collection of environmental protection tax.Since businesses are typically motivated by profit while engaging in a variety of production and trading activities,their profitability can be utilized as a primary benchmark when assessing their financial success.The ability of businesses to employ assets to generate profits can be reflected by return on total assets,hence this article uses the indicator of return on total assets(ROA)to measure the financial performance of organizations since return on total assets can indicate an organization’s capacity to utilize assets to generate profits.This article analyzes the link between environmental protection tax,technological innovation,and enterprise financial performance,based on the "Porter hypothesis," externality theory,technological innovation theory and so on.The study empirically examines the relationship between environmental protection tax,technological innovation,and enterprise by using the A-share heavy polluting listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2013 to 2021 as the treatment group sample and the non-heavy polluting listed enterprises that are almost not affected by the environmental protection tax as the control group sample.It empirically examines the connection between technological innovation,environmental protection tax,and business financial performance.The sample businesses were grouped based on the types of property rights,business size,and life cycle.Heterogeneity analysis was done,and the mediation effect model was used to explain why the effects of environmental protection taxes on various businesses varied.The empirical findings demonstrate that:(1)environmental protection tax positively and significantly influences technological innovation;(2)technological innovation can significantly improve an company’s financial performance;(3)technological innovation mediates the relationship between environmental protection tax and corporate financial performance;and(4)the environmental protection tax’s role in promoting financial performance is primarily found in state-owned enterprises.Finally,combined with the empirical analysis results above,suggestions are put forward on ecological tax reform in China and the growth of heavily polluting listed enterprises.In particular,the government needs to improve the tax system of environmental protection,improve the regulatory system,and optimize the environment for tax payment,smooth the policy transmission mechanism of environmental protection tax,and formulate policies according to the characteristics of heavy polluting enterprises.Enterprises should implement the concept of green development,pay attention to the long term,attach importance to talent training,adjust strategies according to the actual situation,regard environmental protection tax as an opportunity drive transformation and modernization and actively improve innovation output. |
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