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Tax Treatment of Dividends and Capital Gains and the Dividend Decision Under Dual Income Tax

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  • Kari, Seppo
  • Karikallio, Hanna

Abstract

The paper analyses efficiency aspects of a dual income tax system with a higher tax on capital gains than dividends. It argues that apart from the distortions to investments claimed in earlier literature, the system puts even more emphasis in creating incentives for entrepreneurs to participate in tax planning. The paper suggests that the owner of a closely held company can avoid all personal taxes on entrepreneurial income by two tax-planning strategies. The first is the avoidance of distributions, which would be taxed at the tax rate on labour income. These funds would instead be invested in the financial markets. The second strategy is a distribute-and-call-back policy, converting retained profits into new equity capital. Interestingly, the outcome is that investment in real capital is not distorted in the long-run equilibrium. Empirical evidence using micro data is also provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Kari, Seppo & Karikallio, Hanna, 2007. "Tax Treatment of Dividends and Capital Gains and the Dividend Decision Under Dual Income Tax," Discussion Papers 416, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:fer:dpaper:416
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    File URL: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/148402
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    Cited by:

    1. Stenkula, Mikael & Wykman, Niklas, 2022. "The Taxation of Closely Held Firms: The Achilles Heel of the Dual Income Tax System Reconsidered," Working Paper Series 1434, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Seppo Kari & Hanna Karikallio & Jukka Pirttilä, 2008. "Anticipating Tax Changes: Evidence from the Finnish Corporate Income Tax Reform of 2005," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 29(2), pages 167-196, June.
    3. Ram Singh, 2022. "Do the Wealthy Underreport their Income? Analysing Relationship between Wealth and Reported Income in India," Working papers 331, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    4. Kari, Seppo & Ropponen, Olli, 2016. "A Note on the Effects of Income-Splitting under Dual Income Tax," Working Papers 81, VATT Institute for Economic Research.

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