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Dividends and taxes: The moderating role of agency conflicts

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  • Berzins, Janis
  • Bøhren, Øyvind
  • Stacescu, Bogdan

Abstract

We find that potential conflicts between majority and minority shareholders strongly influence how dividends respond to taxes. When the controlling shareholder has a smaller stake, the incentives to extract private benefits are stronger – a shareholder conflict that can be mitigated by dividend payout. We study a large and clean regulatory shock in Norway that increases the dividend tax rate for all individuals from 0% to 28%. We find that dividends drop less the higher the potential shareholder conflict, suggesting that dividend policy trades off tax and agency considerations. The average payout ratio falls by 30 percentage points when the conflict potential is low, but by only 18 points when it is high. These lower dividends cannot be explained by higher salaries to shareholders or diverse liquidity needs. We also observe a strong increase in indirect ownership of high-conflict firms through tax-exempt holding companies and suggest policy implications for intercorporate dividend taxation.

Suggested Citation

  • Berzins, Janis & Bøhren, Øyvind & Stacescu, Bogdan, 2019. "Dividends and taxes: The moderating role of agency conflicts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 583-604.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:58:y:2019:i:c:p:583-604
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2019.07.003
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    5. Jacob, Martin, 2021. "Dividend taxes, employment, and firm productivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Zhe An & Wenlian Gao & Donghui Li & Dezhu Ye, 2022. "Dividend payouts, cash‐flow uncertainty and the role of institutions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7-8), pages 1356-1390, July.
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    9. Barros, Victor & Verga Matos, Pedro & Miranda Sarmento, Joaquim & Rino Vieira, Pedro, 2023. "High-tech firms: Dividend policy in a context of sustainability and technological change," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dividends; Taxes; Agency costs; Shareholder conflicts; Indirect ownership;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

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