IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fer/wpaper/154.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax planning and investment responses to dividend taxation

Author

Listed:
  • Koivisto, Aliisa

Abstract

This study explores how business owners respond to dividend taxes in different margins including tax planning and investment. I use administrative tax data on all privately held Finnish corporations and their main owners in 2006–2016. By using tax schedule discontinuities and changes in the schedule as variation, I find exceptionally clear dividend payment responses to tax rates. Evidence on the asset composition of firms indicates that a notable part of the payment response is due to inter-temporal income-smoothing, while changes in the tax schedule did not cause significant real responses in output or investment. Hence, dividend taxes capitalize into share values, as earnings are left in the firms to avoid higher dividend tax. In addition, studying the income composition of owners around tax changes reveals income-shifting between wage and dividends with negligible effect on gross income received from the firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Koivisto, Aliisa, 2023. "Tax planning and investment responses to dividend taxation," Working Papers 154, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:fer:wpaper:154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/186754
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bastani, Spencer & Selin, Håkan, 2014. "Bunching and non-bunching at kink points of the Swedish tax schedule," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 36-49.
    2. Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob, 2016. "Dividend Taxes and Income Shifting," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(4), pages 693-717, October.
    3. Mervyn A. King, 1974. "Taxation and the Cost of Capital," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(1), pages 21-35.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aliisa Koivisto, 2025. "Tax planning and investment responses to dividend taxation," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(2), pages 347-386, April.
    2. Leon Bettendorf & Arjan Lejour & Maarten ’t Riet, 2017. "Tax Bunching by Owners of Small Corporations," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(4), pages 411-438, December.
    3. Henrekson, Magnus & Sanandaji, Tino, 2016. "Owner-Level Taxes and Business Activity," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 12(1), pages 1-94, March.
    4. Luca Spataro & Tommaso Crescioli, 2024. "How much capital should be taxed? A review of the quantitative and empirical literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1399-1436, September.
    5. Dingquan Miao & Håkan Selin & Martin Söderström, 2025. "Earnings Responses to Even Higher Taxes," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 135(667), pages 838-860.
    6. Andreas R. Kostøl & Andreas S. Myhre, 2021. "Labor Supply Responses to Learning the Tax and Benefit Schedule," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3733-3766, November.
    7. Vincent Dekker & Karsten Schweikert, 2021. "A Comparison of Different Data-driven Procedures to Determine the Bunching Window," Public Finance Review, , vol. 49(2), pages 262-293, March.
    8. Andreas Fagereng & Luigi Guiso & Davide Malacrino & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 115-170, January.
    9. Mr. Shafik Hebous & Andualem Mengistu, 2024. "Efficient Economic Rent Taxation under a Global Minimum Corporate Tax," IMF Working Papers 2024/057, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Advani, Arun, 2021. "Missing Incomes in the UK : Evidence and Policy Implications," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1364, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    11. Mori, Naoya, 2010. "Tax clientele effects of dividends under intertemporal consumption choices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1089-1097, May.
    12. R. Lardeux, 2018. "Who Understands The French Income Tax? Bunching Where Tax Liabilities Start," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2018-04, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
    13. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2005. "Company Financial Structure: A Survey and Implications for Developing Economies," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), Finance and Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Waldenstrom, Daniel & Bastani, Spencer, 2020. "The Ability Gradient in Bunching," CEPR Discussion Papers 14599, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Bustos, Alvaro & Engel, Eduardo M. R. A. & Galetovic, Alexander, 2004. "Could higher taxes increase the long-run demand for capital? Theory and evidence for Chile," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 675-697, April.
    16. Jacob, Martin, 2014. "Cross-base tax elasticity of capital gains," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 169, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    17. Jespersen, Jesper, 2005. "Debat og kommentarer: Keynes-inspireret makroøkonomisk teori," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2005(1), pages 104-121.
    18. Facundo Alveredo & Juliana Londoño Vélez, 2013. "High incomes and personal taxation in a developing economy: Colombia 1993-2010," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 12, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    19. McGee, M. Kevin, 1998. "Capital Gains Taxation and New Firm Investment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 4), pages 653-73, December.
    20. Halvarsson, Daniel & Korpi, Martin & Wennberg, Karl, 2018. "Entrepreneurship and income inequality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 275-293.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fer:wpaper:154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anita Niskanen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vatttfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.