I investigate the effect of different measures of corporate taxes on stock returns. The results support the partisan politics cycle effect on equity returns. A high minus low (Hi-Lo) portfolio sorted by (Total Corporate Taxes/Total Assets) has an annual return of +3.8% during Republican...

In a seminal study, Elton and Gruber (1970) argue that ex-dividend day pricing can be used to infer the marginal tax rates of shareholders. If this view is correct, managers of individual firms would be provided with information of relevance to major financing and distribution decisions. We...

Over 140 countries agreed on a fundamental global corporate tax reform in 2021. The new framework includes a consumer-location-based profit taxation (Pillar 1) and a global minimum tax rate of 15% (Pillar 2). Using high-frequency asset price movements around the main events of the reform's...

This paper investigates the direct theoretical relationship between the variance of stock returns (σ2E) and financial leverage (L) considering both corporate and personal taxes. Using a dataset of U.S. industrial firms, we examine the variance of stock returns as a function of the firm’s...

We study the optimal design of corporate tax policy in a textbook life-cycle model featuring two key deviations: (i) firms are imperfectly competitive and (ii) households save by purchasing equity shares in a stock market. In this simple environment, the financial wealth of savers is equal to...

This study finds that stock return volatility is higher during periods of high tax policy uncertainty (TPU), even after controlling for other sources of general macroeconomic uncertainty. Further, we find that the relation between TPU and stock return volatility is more pronounced where firms...

Tax minimization strategies may lead to significant tax savings, which could, in turn, increase firm value. However, such strategies are also associated with significant costs, such as expected penalties and planning, agency, and reputation costs. The overall impact of firms' tax minimization...