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Do active fund managers care about capital gains tax efficiency?

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  • Fong, Kingsley Y.L.
  • Gallagher, David R.
  • Lau, Sarah S.W.
  • Swan, Peter L.

Abstract

This study investigates the tax efficiency of actively managed equity funds by conducting a previously unaddressed natural experiment. Specifically, we examine whether asset sales were timed to take advantage of the introduction of a substantial discount to realized capital gains when the holding period was at least 1Â year. Institutional equity fund management in Australia is principally focused on the pre-fee and pre-tax performance surveys of leading asset consultants. Given this industry setting, our study is important because tax efficiency is not accounted for directly in the reported performance numbers, and is thus opaque. We find that active fund managers overall have significantly increased the proportion of long-term capital gains realized after the change in taxation code, although there are significant variations across funds. We also find that active fund managers realize more long-term gains on both large capitalization and low volatility stocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Fong, Kingsley Y.L. & Gallagher, David R. & Lau, Sarah S.W. & Swan, Peter L., 2009. "Do active fund managers care about capital gains tax efficiency?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 257-270, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:17:y:2009:i:2:p:257-270
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Clemens Sialm & Laura Starks, 2012. "Mutual Fund Tax Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1397-1422, August.
    2. Andrew Ainsworth & Kingsley YL Fong & David R Gallagher & Graham Partington, 2016. "Institutional trading around the ex-dividend day," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 41(2), pages 299-323, May.
    3. Zhe Chen & David R. Gallagher & Graham Harman & Geoffrey J. Warren & Lihui Xi, 2020. "How much does tax erode fund excess returns?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(4), pages 3407-3446, December.

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