This present research paper has the choice to collect data from enterprises with heavy pollution that cover the time interval from 2015 to 2024.After that, we build a multiple linear regression model to do empirical research on the influence that the environmental protection tax has on enterprises’ ESG green-washing behaviors, and the basic mechanism through which this influence functions. Combined with the results of the intermediary effect test, we are carrying out the examination on the adjustment function of many kinds of restriction conditions.One series of robustness examinations has been conducted, therefore it makes the conclusions have more reliability and importance. We carry out a heterogeneity evaluation to go deep into the differences that exist in the operation results of enterprises which have different ownership attributes. (1) At the initial stage of policy implementation, the rising tax cost prompts firms to prefer selective ESG bleaching green. With further increase in policy intensity, the regression coefficient of the quadratic term on firms’ degree of ESG bleaching is -0.873, and rising tax costs significantly inhibit greenwashing behavior.(2)Before the policy strength exceeds the inflection point, the regression coefficient values of the environmental protection tax policy show a notable positive value (0.175) and a notable negative value (-0.008) on the 1% significance level, the results of this research show that a positive correlative relation exists between the environmental protection tax policy and the degree of financing restriction which enterprises are faced with. Therefore, hence, there exists a negative correlative relation between the environmental protection tax policy and the enterprise financial performance. However, when the strength of policy exceeds the turning-point, therefore the condition becomes opposite. (3) The heterogeneity evaluation shows that the property right feature will produce a heterogeneous effect on the relation between the environmental protection tax policy and the enterprise greenwashing behavior.
