Related party transactions in financial reporting and advanced taxation: A systematic literature review

Abstract

This study updates the systematic review of Related Party Transactions (RPT) in financial and tax reporting and explains why the empirical findings are inconsistent. The research design employs an updated systematic review aligned with PRISMA 2020. The initial corpus consisted of 28 primary articles from 2019 to 2024 sourced from a verified review, which was subsequently updated with ten full-text manuscripts; three classic studies outside this period were used solely as a theoretical foundation, resulting in the analysis of 35 empirical articles from 2019 to 2025. Data were extracted according to country, sample period, method, constructs, direction of findings, governance mechanisms, and access links. Bibliometric analysis revealed a predominance of quantitative archive-based/regression studies (31 articles), a focus on the Indonesian context (10 articles), and themes such as earnings management (9 articles), tax avoidance (8 articles), and firm value/performance (7 articles). A cross-study synthesis showed that RPT does not have a single consequence. Transactions that are abusive, non-transparent, or take place under weak governance tend to be associated with earnings management, a decline in reporting quality, expropriation, and tax avoidance. Conversely, operating RPTs can support coordination, internal financing, and firm value when the transactions are fair and effectively monitored. Differences in RPT types, proxies, regulations, ownership structures, audit quality, ESG factors, and crisis conditions account for the heterogeneity of the findings. This study concludes that evaluations of RPTs must distinguish their economic substance and treat corporate governance as a contextual condition rather than a universal hypothesis.