Firm Characteristics and Tax Avoidance of Listed Conglomerates in Nigeria

The study examined the effect of firm characteristics on tax avoidance of listed conglomerates in Nigeria. 
Institutional ownership, audit committee expertise, CEO compensation, firm age and firm leverage were 
used as proxies for firm characteristics, while effective tax rate represented tax avoidance. An ex post facto 
research design was adopted, and panel data comprising sixty pooled observations from six listed 
conglomerates over the ten-year period 2016–2025 were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation 
analysis, regression assumption tests and panel multiple regression. Institutional ownership had a positive 
but non-significant effect on effective tax rate (Coeff. = 0.0015; p-value = 0.9557). Audit committee 
expertise had a significant positive effect (Coeff. = 0.3912; p-value = 0.0174), while CEO compensation 
also had a significant positive effect (Coeff. = 0.0360; p-value = 0.0345). Firm age had a positive but non
significant effect (Coeff. = 0.0008; p-value = 0.6590), whereas firm leverage had a significant positive 
effect (Coeff. = 0.2195; p-value = 0.0286). The overall model was statistically significant at the 5% level 
(Prob. F-statistic = 0.000040). The study concluded that audit committee expertise, CEO compensation 
and firm leverage significantly increased effective tax rate and therefore reduced tax avoidance, while 
institutional ownership and firm age exerted positive but statistically non-significant effects. The study 
recommended stronger monitoring by institutional owners, enhanced audit committee expertise, 
compliance-oriented executive compensation practices, effective use of organizational experience, and 
prudent and transparent leverage policies.