<![CDATA[Purpose: This study examines how profitability, financial distress, and institutional ownership affect corporate tax avoidance among Indonesian manufacturing firms and tests whether CEO narcissism moderates these relationships rather than directly and uniformly driving tax avoidance.Research Methodology: This quantitative study applied purposive sampling to analyze 426 firm-year observations from 142 IDX-listed manufacturing firms (2022–2024), measuring tax avoidance, profitability, distress, ownership, and narcissism using the Effective Tax Rate, Return on Assets, debt-to-equity ratio, institutional shareholding, and Photographic Prominence Index. Moderated Regression Analysis used EViews 13 with a Random Effect ModelResults: Profitability significantly restricts tax avoidance, whereas financial distress and institutional ownership show no significant direct effects. CEO narcissism significantly strengthens the profitability-avoidance relationship but does not moderate distress or ownership pathways.Conclusions: CEO narcissism acts as a selective moderating mechanism, activating only under favorable financial conditions rather than universally.Limitations: This study is limited to Indonesian manufacturers from 2022 to 2024, relying on secondary corporate data.Contributions: This study enriches the behavioral accounting and corporate governance literature and helps tax authorities and boards assess executive leadership governance and tax risks. By introducing selective moderation, this study shows that CEO Narcissism amplifies tax avoidance only under specific financial conditions rather than functioning as a uniform driver, a distinction that constitutes the study’s core theoretical novelty.]]>
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