This study examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure and corporate tax avoidance, with a focus on the moderating role of family ownership in an emerging market context. Using panel data from 354 manufacturing firm-year observations of companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2018–2024, this study applies fixed-effects regression analysis with standard errors clustered at the firm level. The findings show that higher ESG disclosure is associated with lower tax avoidance, supporting the view that transparency functions as an effective governance mechanism that constrains opportunistic fiscal behavior. However, family ownership does not significantly moderate this relationship, suggesting that the governance role of ESG disclosure operates largely independently of ownership concentration. These results indicate that ESG disclosure constrains tax avoidance consistently across firms regardless of family control structure. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirically verified evidence on the ESG–tax avoidance relationship in an emerging economy characterized by concentrated ownership, with implications for sustainability governance, tax policy, and the design of disclosure frameworks in contexts where institutional enforcement remains evolving.
Widiastutik et al. (Tue,) studied this question.