Dividends are taxed at the investor level, but injecting funds into firms does not offer investors the symmetric tax benefit. Hence, there is a tax saving incentive to retain cash in the firm. We theoretically and empirically show that this tax saving motive is important for corporate cash...

Prior research finds that firms pay special dividends before a dividend tax increase. We examine the real effects of this decision, finding that firms incur costs to pay these tax-motivated special dividends. Specifically, firms reduce investment and repurchases to pay these dividends. Further,...

This paper investigates whether investor-level taxes affect corporate payout policy decisions. We predict and find a surge of special dividends in the final months of 2010 and 2012, immediately before individual-level dividend tax rates were expected to increase. We also find evidence that...

This paper argues that forward-looking indices of the effective tax burden on income from capital, namely effective marginal and average tax rates, are negatively biased because traditional models overlook dividend constraints associated with financial tax incentives, such as accelerated...

I examine whether and to what extent tax uncertainty affects a firm's dividend payouts. Based on the argument that tax uncertainty impairs the persistence and predictability of after-tax cash flows, I hypothesize and find that firms with greater tax uncertainty exhibit a lower probability of...

This note provides an explanation for why tax rates on capital gains are usually lower than ordinary income tax rates based on manager's agency problem related to "empire-building" and the underinvestment problem

This note provides an explanation for why tax rates on capital gains are usually lower than ordinary income tax rates based on manager's agency problem related to "empire-building" and the underinvestment problem

This study explores the hypothesis that the 2003 tax cuts on dividends and capital gains generated an increase in aggregate dividends and aggregate share repurchases in the US after 2003. I find that the 2003 tax reform leads to a rise in both types of payouts in the General Equilibrium setting...

This paper reconsiders Sinn's (1991) nucleus theory of the corporation by comparing two different regimes for the equity trap. In the first of these, all cash paid to the shareholders is taxed as dividends, in the second, shareholders are allowed a tax-free return of capital contributed through...

This paper analyzes the economic effects of different income splitting rules for closely held corporations and sole proprietorships/partnerships in a tax system with a dual income tax. We conclude that the tax rules for closed corporations offer roughly the same cost of capital as for widely...