Abstract: As an important feature of the modern budget system, fiscal transparency is not only an important channel to improving the national governance system and the modernization of governance capacity, but also the important factors affecting the operational behaviors of enterprises and their tax compliance. Taking the implementation of the new Budget Law as the starting point and based on the data of China’s prefecture-level cities and A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2021, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of fiscal transparency on corporate tax compliance and its mechanism. The results show that fiscal transparency can significantly improve corporate tax compliance, indicating that fiscal transparency, as a governance tool, plays an important role in corporate tax decision-making. The results of the mechanism analysis show that, from the social dimension, fiscal transparency can improve the willingness of enterprises to pay tax by improving the effectiveness of fiscal expenditure. From the political dimension, fiscal transparency can reduce the tax avoidance space by reducing government official corruption and political connections. From the economic perspective, fiscal transparency can reduce corporate tax avoidance motives by improving the business environment. The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that fiscal transparency can significantly improve corporate tax compliance in regions with higher degree of informatization and lower fiscal pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a long-term budget disclosure mechanism, improve the systematization and coordination of budget disclosure with other budget reform measures, optimize the allocation of fiscal resources, strengthen the economic and social governance effects of fiscal transparency, and improve corporate tax compliance.

Key words: fiscal transparency, corporate tax compliance, new Budget Law, modern budget system