For several years, the number of South Africans starting new business enterprises, has declined. According to the findings of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, in 2003, South Africa ranked 22nd out of 31 countries for new entrepreneurial activities. One of the greatest challenges for South...

We study the importance of owner wages and dividends as alternative payout channels in privately held firms. Using data on all Swedish closely held corporations and their owner-managers over the period 2000 - 2009, we find that dividends comprise one-fourth of total payout to owner-managers....

This paper analyzes whether a dividend tax cut for owner-managers of closely held corporations encourages income shifting, income generation, or both. We use rich, micro data from Sweden for the period 2000 - 2011 comprising the entire Swedish population, as well as firmand individual-level data...

Small- and medium-sized businesses make a significant contribution to the economies of Western countries. Government, industry, and educators commonly train business managers to improve their skills and knowledge in order to improve the performance of these firms. Owner-manager financial skill...

Small businesses are recognized as important drivers of economic growth through their contribution to employment, innovation, and growth in western economies. Rapidly changing and increasing competitive global markets are forcing businesses to become more flexible, leaner, and more adaptable....

Owner-managed businesses are a fast growing group; how they respond to tax is central to the challenge of how to tax labour relative to capital incomes. We use newly linked UK tax records to estimate how personal taxes affect the real economic activity and tax avoidance of company...

We use newly linked tax records to show that the large responses of UK company owner-managers to personal taxes are due to intertemporal income shifting and not to reductions in real business activity. Around half of this shifting is short-term and helps prevent volatile incomes being taxed more...

Governments in many countries have paid close attention to small enterprises because of their social and economic impacts. The role of the owner-manager in advancing the performance of their small business cannot be underestimated. The current study tests the influence of an owner-manager's big...

This paper analyzes whether a dividend tax cut for owner-managers of closely held corporations encourages income shifting, income generation, or both. We use rich, micro data from Sweden for the period 2000 - 2011 comprising the entire Swedish population, as well as firmand individual-level data...