The Impact of Taxes on Dividends and Corporate Financial Policy: Lessons from the 2000s

Abstract

The impact of taxes on dividends and corporate financial policy has been debated by scholars for decades. The current decade has provided an unusual opportunity to test the various theories that have been proposed, and to draw empirical lessons for tax policy.1 In 2003, the taxation of dividend income was transformed when Congress passed the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA). This reform reduced the dividend tax rate from a maximum of 38.6 percent (for taxpayers in the highest bracket before 2003) to a maximum of 15 percent. The tax relief provided by JGTRRA applied to dividends paid by all U.S. firms and to dividends from most—but, importantly, not all—foreign corporations. This chapter reviews some of the major lessons that scholars have drawn from studying the impact of the 2003 tax reform. The focus is on both dividend policy and financial policy (with the latter interpreted broadly to encompass U.S. investors’ preference for holding equity versus debt). The framework used here emphasizes the integrated nature of global financial markets in the 2000s, and envisages JGTRRA as a reform that

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