IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fednsr/369.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of tax law changes on bank dividend policy, sell-offs, organizational form, and industry structure

Author

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect at the bank and industry level of a 1996 tax law change allowing commercial banks to elect S-corporation status. By the end of 2007, roughly one in three commercial banks had either opted for or converted to the S-corporation form of organization. Our study analyzes the effect of this conversion on bank dividend payouts. It also examines the effect S-corporation status has on a community bank's likelihood of sell-off and measures a firm's sensitivity to tax rates based on its choice of organizational form. We document that dividend payouts increase substantially after a bank's conversion to S status. Moreover, community banks that convert are significantly less likely to be sold than their C-corporation peers. We estimate a tax rate elasticity of conversion in the range of 2 to 3 percent for every 1-percentage-point change in relative tax rates. Overall, our results provide evidence that Subchapter S status has significant effects on bank conduct and industry structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamid Mehran & Michael Suher, 2009. "The impact of tax law changes on bank dividend policy, sell-offs, organizational form, and industry structure," Staff Reports 369, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:369
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr369.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr369.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George A. Kahn & William R. Keeton & Linda Schroeder & Stuart E. Weiner, 2003. "The role of community banks in the U.S. economy," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Q II, pages 15-43.
    2. Hirtle, Beverly, 2004. "Stock repurchases and bank holding company performance," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 28-57, January.
    3. Goolsbee, Austan, 2004. "The impact of the corporate income tax: evidence from state organizational form data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 2283-2299, September.
    4. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    5. Jennifer L. Blouin & Jana Smith Raedy & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2007. "Did Firms Substitute Dividends for Share Repurchases after the 2003 Reductions in Shareholder Tax Rates?," NBER Working Papers 13601, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Scott E. Hein & Timothy W. Koch & Steven Scott MacDonald, 2005. "On the uniqueness of community banks," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 90(Q 1), pages 15-36.
    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. Albert DePrince & William Ford & Pamela Morris, 2011. "Some causes of interstate differences in community bank performance," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 35(1), pages 22-40, January.
    2. R. Alton Gilbert & David C. Wheelock, 2007. "Measuring commercial bank profitability: proceed with caution," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 89(Nov), pages 515-532.
    3. Christian Keuschnigg & Evelyn Ribi, 2010. "Business Taxation, Corporate Finance and Economic Performance," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2010 2010-04, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    4. Campbell, Randall C. & Nagel, Gregory L., 2016. "Private information and limitations of Heckman's estimator in banking and corporate finance research," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 186-195.
    5. Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo & Martínez-Vázquez, Jorge & Vulovic, Violeta, 2013. "Taxation and Economic Growth in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4583, Inter-American Development Bank.
    6. Kazuki Onji & John P. Tang, 2015. "A nation without a corporate income tax: Evidence from nineteenth century Japan," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-12, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    7. Schaeck, K. & Silva Buston, C.F. & Wagner, W.B., 2013. "The Two Faces of Interbank Correlation," Discussion Paper 2013-077, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    8. William Gale & Samuel Brown, 2013. "Small Business, Innovation, and Tax Policy: A Review," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(4), pages 871-892, December.
    9. Ly, Kim Cuong & Liu, Hong & Opong, Kwaku, 2017. "Who acquires whom among stand-alone commercial banks and bank holding company affiliates?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 144-158.
    10. Lejour, Arjan & Massenz, Gabriella, 2020. "Income Shifting and Organizational Form Choice : Evidence from Europe," Other publications TiSEM 3138edef-d645-4113-9981-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Ahmed Imran Hunjra & Muhammad Irfan Chani & Sehrish Javed & Sana Naeem & Muhammad Shahzad Ijaz, 2014. "Impact of Micro Economic Variables on Firms Performance," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 2(2), pages 65-73, February.
    12. López Zapata, Esteban & García Muiña, Fernando Enrique & García, Susana María, 2019. "Analysing the relationship between diversification strategy and firm performance: the role of the economic cycle," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    13. Xi He, 2012. "Two Sides of a Coin: Endogenous and Exogenous Effects of Corporate Diversification on Firm Value," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 375-397, December.
    14. Elsas, Ralf & Hackethal, Andreas & Holzhäuser, Markus, 2010. "The anatomy of bank diversification," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1274-1287, June.
    15. Elif AKBEN SELCUK, 2014. "Corporate Diversification, Group Affiliation and Firm Value: Evidence From Turkey," Journal of BRSA Banking and Financial Markets, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, vol. 8(2), pages 151-174.
    16. Daphne Chen & Shi Qi & Don Schlagenhauf, 2018. "Corporate Income Tax, Legal Form of Organization, and Employment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 270-304, October.
    17. Arnd Kölling & Claus Schnabel, 2022. "Owners, external managers and industrial relations in German establishments," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 424-443, June.
    18. Li Liu, 2014. "Income Taxation and Business Incorporation: Evidence From the Early Twentieth Century," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(2), pages 387-418, June.
    19. Helfaya, Akrum & Aboud, Ahmed & Amin, Essam, 2023. "An examination of corporate environmental goals disclosure, sustainability performance and firm value – An Egyptian evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    20. Jin Lung Peng & Lih Ru Chen & Jennifer L. Wang & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2017. "Diversification Versus Strategic Focus: Evidence from Insurance Intermediaries in Taiwan," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(3), pages 530-555, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dividends; Banks and banking - Taxation;

    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:fip:fednsr:369. 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: Gabriella Bucciarelli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbnyus.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.