EFFECT OF CEO CHARACTERISTICS ON CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE IN NIGERIAN LISTED MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

ABSTRACT This study examines how Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics impact corporate tax avoidance among the listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Considering that tax avoidance affects revenue generation and sustainable economic development adversely, it has been a growing concern for governments and regulatory agencies. Most corporate entities find tax avoidance methods to increase their profit, while these taxes, on the other hand, become a major source of public revenue. In the context of Upper Echelon Theory, which operationalizes the effect of managerial characteristics on strategic organizational outcomes, this study will assess the nature of the relationship between corporate tax avoidance in the manufacturing companies in Nigeria and CEO gender, financial expertise, and ownership structure. An ex-post facto research design was adopted while secondary data were obtained from published annual reports of six listed manufacturing companies from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) for the period 2019–2024. Tax avoidance was measured with the Effective Tax Rate (ETR), while the other variables—CEO gender, financial expertise, and ownership—were proxied using dummy variables and ratio measures. The data were analyzed with the use of panel-regression techniques, while Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) with robustness tests dealt with issues of heteroskedasticity and serial correlation. None of the ownership, CEO gender, or financial knowledge impacted tax evasion significantly, as the results indicated. The study, therefore, declared that CEO traits exert little influence on tax evasion of Nigerian listed firms in the manufacturing sector. Based on these eventualities, the study noted, among others, that companies should invest in an institutional tax planning system as well as compliance units rather than relying exclusively on the judgment of a CEO.