IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/irvfin/v5y2005i3-4p199-218.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Taxation on Equal Access Share Buybacks in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • CHRISTINE BROWN
  • KATRINA EFTHIM

Abstract

In Australia, equal access share buybacks can be structured so that a portion of the buyback price is designated as a fully franked dividend. The tax benefits derived from this structure imply that off‐market buybacks are sometimes offered to shareholders at a discount to the current market price. This is in contrast to the United States, which operates under a classical taxation system, and where off‐market buybacks are generally executed at a premium to the market price. The situation in Australia provides a unique opportunity to add to our understanding of taxation explanations for how and why companies buy back their shares. We find that the size of the discount of the offer price to the current share price is significantly related to the proportion of the buyback price designated a franked dividend. Analysis of the after‐tax benefits to shareholders leads us to conclude that the structure of many equal access buybacks in Australia is advantageous to superannuation funds holding the stock.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Brown & Katrina Efthim, 2005. "Effect of Taxation on Equal Access Share Buybacks in Australia," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 5(3‐4), pages 199-218, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:irvfin:v:5:y:2005:i:3-4:p:199-218
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2443.2006.00055.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2443.2006.00055.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-2443.2006.00055.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. Constantinides, George M, 1983. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Personal Tax," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(3), pages 611-636, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Scott Walker & Graham Partington, 1999. "The value of dividends: Evidence from cum-dividend trading in the ex-dividend period," Published Paper Series 1999-1, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    4. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    5. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    6. MacKie-Mason, Jeffrey K, 1990. "Do Taxes Affect Corporate Financing Decisions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1471-1493, December.
    7. Hodrick, Laurie Simon, 1999. "Does stock price elasticity affect corporate financial decisions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 225-256, May.
    8. 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.
    9. P. Raghavendra Rau & Theo Vermaelen, 2002. "Regulation, Taxes, and Share Repurchases in the United Kingdom," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(2), pages 245-282, April.
    10. Bagwell, Laurie Simon, 1992. "Dutch Auction Repurchases: An Analysis of Shareholder Heterogeneity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 71-105, March.
    11. James H. Scott Jr., 1976. "A Theory of Optimal Capital Structure," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(1), pages 33-54, Spring.
    12. Ikenberry, David & Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1995. "Market underreaction to open market share repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 181-208.
    13. Miller, Merton H. & Scholes, Myron S., 1978. "Dividends and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 333-364, December.
    14. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:3:p:819-843 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Charles C. Holt & John P. Shelton, 1961. "The Implications Of The Capital Gains Tax For Investment Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 16(4), pages 559-580, December.
    16. Barclay, M.J. & Smith, C.W., 1988. "Corporate Payout Policy: Cash Dividencds Versus Open- Market Repurchases," Papers 88-10, Rochester, Business - Managerial Economics Research Center.
    17. Barclay, Michael J. & Smith, Clifford Jr., 1988. "Corporate payout policy : Cash Dividends versus Open-Market Repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 61-82, October.
    18. Brown, David T, 1988. "The Construction of Tender Offers: Capital Gains Taxes and the Free Rider Problem," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 183-196, April.
    19. Lie, Erik & Lie, Heidi J., 1999. "The Role of Personal Taxes in Corporate Decisions: An Empirical Analysis of Share Repurchases and Dividends," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(4), pages 533-552, December.
    20. 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.
    21. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:1:p:313-333 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely, 2002. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and the Substitution Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1649-1684, August.
    23. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1799-1819 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Dann, Larry Y., 1981. "Common stock repurchases : An analysis of returns to bondholders and stockholders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 113-138, June.
    25. Comment, Robert & Jarrell, Gregg A, 1991. "The Relative Signalling Power of Dutch-Auction and Fixed-Price Self-Tender Offers and Open-Market Share Repurchases," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1243-1271, September.
    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. Christine Brown & Daniel Norman, 2010. "Management choice of buyback method: Australian evidence," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(4), pages 767-782, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Hussein Abedi Shamsabadi & Byung S. Min & Imen Tebourbi & Mohammad Nourani, 2020. "Corporate Governance in Australia: Share Repurchases under an Imputation Tax System," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 1-23.
    4. 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.
    5. Christine Brown & John Handley & James O'Day, 2015. "The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(1), pages 37-62, March.
    6. Ji, Philip Inyeob, 2016. "Is corporate payout taxation a long run phenomenon? Evidence from international data," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 84-100.
    7. Asjeet S. Lamba & Vivek M. Miranda, 2010. "The Role of Executive Stock Options in On‐Market Share Buybacks," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 10(3), pages 339-363, September.
    8. Hue Hwa Au Yong & Christine Brown & Chloe Choy Yeing Ho, 2014. "Off-Market Buybacks in Australia: Evidence of Abnormal Trading around Key Dates," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 551-585, December.
    9. Ota, Koji & Lau, David, 2021. "Share repurchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Trading Network," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

    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. Christine Brown & John Handley & James O'Day, 2015. "The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(1), pages 37-62, March.
    2. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Patterns in Payout Policy and Payout Channel Choice of UK Firms in the 1990s," Discussion Paper 2005-002, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    3. H.Kent Baker & Gary E. Powell & E.Theodore Veit, 2002. "Revisiting the dividend puzzle," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 241-261.
    4. Johannes A. Skjeltorp & Bernt Arne Ødegaard, 2004. "The ownership structure of repurchasing firms," Working Paper 2004/7, Norges Bank.
    5. Chris Mitchell, 2019. "The Lock-In Effect and the Corporate Payout Puzzle," ISER Discussion Paper 1070, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    6. Alquhaif, Abdulsalam & Al-Gamrh, Bakr & Abdul Latif, Rohaida, 2020. "An overview of share buybacks: A descriptive case from Malaysia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    7. Baker, H. Kent & Powell, Gary E. & Veit, E. Theodore, 2002. "Revisiting the dividend puzzle: Do all of the pieces now fit?," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 241-261.
    8. Golbe, Devra L. & Nyman, Ingmar, 2013. "How do share repurchases affect ownership concentration?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 22-40.
    9. Gunnar Bårdsen & Jurgen Doornik & Jan Tore Klovland, 2004. "A European-type wage equation from an American-style labor market: Evidence from a panel of Norwegian manufacturing industries in the 1930s," Working Paper 2004/4, Norges Bank.
    10. Hue Hwa Au Yong & Christine Brown & Chloe Choy Yeing Ho, 2014. "Off-Market Buybacks in Australia: Evidence of Abnormal Trading around Key Dates," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 551-585, December.
    11. Wang, Zigan & Yin, Qie Ellie & Yu, Luping, 2021. "Real effects of share repurchases legalization on corporate behaviors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 197-219.
    12. Drousia, Angeliki & Episcopos, Athanasios & Leledakis, George N., 2016. "Market Reaction to Stock Repurchases in Greece," MPRA Paper 85610, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Mar 2018.
    13. Paul Tanyi & David B. Smith & Xiaoyan Cheng, 2021. "Does firm payout policy affect shareholders’ dissatisfaction with directors?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 279-320, July.
    14. Céline Du Boys, 2006. "Pay out policy decisions in France A managerial perspective," Post-Print hal-02057673, HAL.
    15. Dong, Ming & Robinson, Chris & Veld, Chris, 2005. "Why individual investors want dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 121-158, December.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely, 2002. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and the Substitution Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1649-1684, August.
    19. de Jong, A. & van Dijk, R. & Veld, C.H., 2001. "The Dividend and Share Repurchase Policies of Canadian Firms," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2001-88-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    20. Christine Brown, 2007. "The Announcement Effects of Off-Market Share Repurchases in Australia," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 32(2), pages 369-385, December.

    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:irvfin:v:5:y:2005:i:3-4:p:199-218. 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=1369-412X .

    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.