Abstract: Higher reputation is often regarded as an intangible asset of an enterprise, which can bring benefits to enterprises with higher reputation and also external pressure to them. Based on the differences-in-differences model, this paper takes the disclosure of the tax credit rating in 2015 as a natural experiment to examine the impact of the“good tax reputation”under the halo of A-level taxpayers on corporate tax compliance. The empirical results show that the disclosure of tax credit rating can significantly improve the tax compliance of the enterprises with A-level tax credit, and this effect is more significant for enterprises with higher nominal tax rates, or located at areas with lower tax collection and management power or at areas with lower tax ethical levels. The results of further research show that, on one hand, higher tax reputation can help enterprises to alleviate financing constraints by bringing practical economic benefits to them, thereby encouraging the enterprises to comply with tax laws; on the other hand, the higher tax reputation also forces enterprises to comply with tax laws by bringing external pressure on them. Therefore, in order to advance the construction of “Credit China”and promote the corporate tax compliance, it is suggested to further raise the legislation level for tax-paying credit, strengthen the scientificity and guidance of the evaluation system of tax-paying credit management, extend the scope and strength of the appliance of the tax credit evaluation results, and create fine tax environment for business through simplifying administrative procedures and delegating powers to lower levels.

Key words: tax credit rating, tax collection and management, corporate reputation, tax compliance