Long‐term capital gains taxes and stock prices: Evidence from India

Prior studies of the relevance of long‐term capital gains for stock prices rely on the evidence from the 1997 tax cut in the United States. The key component of the tax‐sensitive ownership in these studies is individual ownership; its average is reported to be as high as 66.7%. The sharp increase in institutional ownership over the last two decades to more than 80% and the concomitant decline in individual ownership raises the question of whether taxes on long‐term capital gains are still relevant for stock prices. We examine stock price responses to the 2018 increase in the long‐term capital gains tax rate in India, a market where individual stock ownership is only 18.5%. Overall, the evidence provides strong support for the continued relevance of long‐term capital gains taxes for stock prices despite individual investors accounting for only a small portion of the stock ownership.