Territorial Tax System Reform and Corporate Financial Policies

We examine the effect of a permanent change to a country corporate income repatriation tax system on corporate financial policies. In 2009 Japan and the U.K. switched from a worldwide to a territorial system for the taxation of repatriated foreign earnings. The new system effectively reduces the tax liabilities of most multinational firms when repatriating earnings. We find that after the change firms accumulate less cash, pay out larger amounts through dividends and share repurchases, and invest less abroad. We do not find that the tax system change has significantly affected domestic investments even when controlling for capital constraints