Taxation and dividend policy: The muting effect of agency issues and shareholder conflicts

Using proprietary data on the entire spectrum of ownership structure and exact tax status of investors and firms, we examine how dividend taxation affects payout. Utilizing an exogenous shock to dividend taxation, we show that absent any frictions, dividend taxation has a large impact on payout. As...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Jacob, M. (Martin)|||/items/b4c80971-c877-4230-904c-54573540e482, Michaely, R. (Roni)|||/items/1a97fad9-ddcb-44d1-a0c6-c8f2c00b2db4
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/119804
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/119804
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Taxation of dividends
Dividend yield
Stockholders
Agency theory
Executives
Tax cuts
Descrição
Resumo:Using proprietary data on the entire spectrum of ownership structure and exact tax status of investors and firms, we examine how dividend taxation affects payout. Utilizing an exogenous shock to dividend taxation, we show that absent any frictions, dividend taxation has a large impact on payout. As agency issues and shareholder conflicts increase, owners’ tax preferences have significantly smaller impact on payout. Three mechanisms reduce the dividend-tax sensitivity: Coordination among owners, heterogeneity in tax preferences, and diverging objectives between managers and owners. Altogether, taxation has a first-order impact on payout, but agency issues and shareholder conflicts mute its impact substantially.