IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v36y2009i5-6p725-753.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes to Income Trust Taxation in Canada: Investor Reaction and Dividend Clientele Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Fayez A. Elayan
  • Jingyu Li
  • Maureen E. Donnelly
  • Allister W. Young

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between tax‐induced dividend clientele theory and the recent changes to the taxation of income trusts in Canada. On October 31, 2006, the Canadian government announced the Tax Fairness Plan (TFP) calling for the elimination of the considerable tax advantage enjoyed by income trusts. Generally, distributions from income trusts are now taxed at rates comparable to those imposed on corporate dividends. We examine market reaction to the TFP to address three issues: first, whether the valuation effect of a dividend tax increase is consistent with the traditional or the new view of dividend taxation; secondly, whether the market reaction to tax increases has a differential impact on firm value that is related to the tax preferences of taxable, tax‐exempt, and foreign investor tax clienteles; and thirdly, whether firms change their dividend policies in response to the preference of institutional investors (tax‐based dividend policy effect) or whether institutional investors are sorting themselves across firms based on their dividend policies (investor sorting effect). Our results provide strong evidence as follows. First, the valuation effect in reaction to the TFP announcement is consistent with the traditional view of dividend taxation – i.e. that taxes on dividends reduce the net return to investors, increase the firm's cost of capital and lower the firm's ability to access capital markets, thereby discouraging investment and savings. Secondly, we saw that trusts with a larger percentage of their units held by tax‐exempt, low‐tax, and foreign investors had a higher decline in value when compared with trusts held mostly by ordinary taxable investors. These results support dividend tax clientele theory. Finally, we observed changes in institutional investor clienteles consistent with the investor sorting effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Fayez A. Elayan & Jingyu Li & Maureen E. Donnelly & Allister W. Young, 2009. "Changes to Income Trust Taxation in Canada: Investor Reaction and Dividend Clientele Theory," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5‐6), pages 725-753, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:36:y:2009:i:5-6:p:725-753
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5957.2009.02156.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2009.02156.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2009.02156.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    2. Roland Gillet & Marc‐André Lapointe & Philippe Raimbourg, 2008. "Dividend Policy and Reputation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3‐4), pages 516-540, April.
    3. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2005. "Dividend Taxes and Corporate Behavior: Evidence from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 791-833.
    4. Alan J. Auerbach & Kevin A. Hassett, 2006. "Dividend Taxes and Firm Valuation: New Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 119-123, May.
    5. Alpa Dhanani, 2005. "Corporate Dividend Policy:," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7-8), pages 1625-1672.
    6. Alan J. Auerbach & Kevin A. Hassett, 2005. "The 2003 Dividend Tax Cuts and the Value of the Firm: An Event Study," NBER Working Papers 11449, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bernhardt, Dan & Douglas, Alan & Robertson, Fiona, 2005. "Testing dividend signaling models," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 77-98, January.
    8. Bradford, David F., 1981. "The incidence and allocation effects of a tax on corporate distributions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, February.
    9. Seth Armitage & Lynn Hodgkinson & Graham Partington, 2006. "The Market Value of UK Dividends From Shares With Differing Entitlements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1‐2), pages 220-244, January.
    10. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    11. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September.
    12. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    13. Yaniv Grinstein & Roni Michaely, 2005. "Institutional Holdings and Payout Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1389-1426, June.
    14. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Stulz, Rene M., 2004. "Dividend Policy, Agency Costs, and Earned Equity," Working Paper Series 2004-10, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    15. Mihir A. Desai & Li Jin, 2007. "Institutional Tax Clienteles and Payout Policy," NBER Working Papers 13283, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Franklin Allen & Antonio E. Bernardo & Ivo Welch, 2000. "A Theory of Dividends Based on Tax Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2499-2536, December.
    17. Korinek, Anton & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2009. "Dividend taxation and intertemporal tax arbitrage," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 142-159, February.
    18. Kevin A. Hassett & Alan J. Auerbach, 2005. "The 2003 Dividend Tax Cuts and the Value of the Firm," AEI Economics Working Papers 49878, American Enterprise Institute.
    19. Amihud, Yakov & Li, Kefei, 2006. "The Declining Information Content of Dividend Announcements and the Effects of Institutional Holdings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 637-660, September.
    20. Doron Nissim & Amir Ziv, 2001. "Dividend Changes and Future Profitability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2111-2133, December.
    21. Giaccotto, Carmelo & Sfiridis, James M., 1996. "Hypothesis testing in event studies: The case of variance changes," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 349-370, October.
    22. Corrado, Charles J., 1989. "A nonparametric test for abnormal security-price performance in event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 385-395, August.
    23. Alpa Dhanani, 2005. "Corporate Dividend Policy: The Views of British Financial Managers," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7‐8), pages 1625-1672, September.
    24. Alan J. Auerbach, 1979. "Wealth Maximization and the Cost of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(3), pages 433-446.
    25. Merton H. Miller & Franco Modigliani, 1961. "Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34, pages 411-411.
    26. Roland Gillet & Marc‐André Lapointe & Philippe Raimbourg, 2008. "Dividend Policy and Reputation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3‐4), pages 516-540, April.
    27. John, Kose & Williams, Joseph, 1985. "Dividends, Dilution, and Taxes: A Signalling Equilibrium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1053-1070, September.
    28. Sudipto Bhattacharya, 1979. "Imperfect Information, Dividend Policy, and "The Bird in the Hand" Fallacy," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 259-270, Spring.
    29. Seth Armitage & Lynn Hodgkinson & Graham Partington, 2006. "The Market Value of UK Dividends From Shares With Differing Entitlements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1-2), pages 220-244.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Eberhardt & Nils Linnemann & Martin Thomsen, 2019. "Die Einführung von § 8b Abs. 4 KStG – Eine ökonomische Analyse potentieller Ausweichreaktionen [The Introduction of Sec. 8b (4) Corporate Income Tax Act—An Economic Analysis of Potential Avoidance ," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 271-311, November.
    2. Ishmael Radikoko & Emmanuel Ndjadingwe, 2015. "Investigating the Effects of Dividends Pay-out on Stock Prices and Traded Equity Volumes of BSE Listed Firms," International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 1(4), pages 24-37, October.

    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. Fayez A. Elayan & Jingyu Li & Maureen E. Donnelly & Allister W. Young, 2009. "Changes to Income Trust Taxation in Canada: Investor Reaction and Dividend Clientele Theory," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5-6), pages 725-753.
    2. Maria Elisabete Duante Neves, 2017. "Payout and Firm's Catering," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(4), pages 104-132.
    3. repec:ers:journl:v:v:y:2017:i:4:p:104-132 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Lee, Sang-Yeob & Hong, Woo-Hyung, 2020. "Does tax really matter for corporate payout policy: Evidence from a policy experiment in South Korea," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Jacob, Martin & Alstadsæter, Annette, 2013. "Payout policies of privately held firms: Flexibility and the role of income taxes," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 152, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    6. Batabyal, Sourav & Robinson, Richard, 2017. "Capital change and stability when dividends convey signals," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 158-167.
    7. Booth, Laurence & Zhou, Jun, 2017. "Dividend policy: A selective review of results from around the world," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-15.
    8. Kartal Demirg ne, 2015. "Determinants of Target Dividend Payout Ratio: A Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag Analysis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 418-426.
    9. Szilagyi, P.G., 2007. "Corporate governance and the agency costs of debt and outside equity," Other publications TiSEM 9520d40a-224f-43a8-9bf9-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Jacob, Martin, 2010. "Taxation, Dividends, and Share Repurchases: Taking Evidence Global," Working Paper Series, Center for Fiscal Studies 2010:10, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    11. Roni Michaely & Stefano Rossi & Michael Weber & Michael Weber, 2017. "The Information Content of Dividends: Safer Profits, Not Higher Profits," CESifo Working Paper Series 6751, CESifo.
    12. Szomko Natalia, 2015. "Investor Reaction to Information on Final Dividend Payouts on the Warsaw Stock Exchange – an Event Study Analysis," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 45(1), pages 127-146, March.
    13. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    14. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September.
    15. Blau, Benjamin M. & Fuller, Kathleen P., 2008. "Flexibility and dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 133-152, April.
    16. Annette Alstadsæter & Erik Fjærli, 2009. "Neutral taxation of shareholder income? Corporate responses to an announced dividend tax," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(4), pages 571-604, August.
    17. Fairchild, Richard & Guney, Yilmaz & Thanatawee, Yordying, 2014. "Corporate dividend policy in Thailand: Theory and evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 129-151.
    18. Chris Mitchell, 2019. "The Lock-In Effect and the Corporate Payout Puzzle," ISER Discussion Paper 1070r, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, revised Aug 2021.
    19. Drienko, Jo & Khorsand, Bardia, 2023. "Dividend hibernation and future earnings: When no dividend news is good news," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Uddin, Mohammad Riaz, 2022. "Do intangibles matter for corporate policies? Evidence from organization capital and corporate payout choices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    21. Hussein Abedi Shamsabadi & Byung-Seong Min & Richard Chung, 2016. "Corporate governance and dividend strategy: lessons from Australia," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 583-610, October.

    More about this item

    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:bla:jbfnac:v:36:y:2009:i:5-6:p:725-753. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    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.