IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v88y2018icp250-266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate tax incentives and capital structure: New evidence from UK firm-level tax returns

Author

Listed:
  • Devereux, Michael P.
  • Maffini, Giorgia
  • Xing, Jing

Abstract

We investigate how companies’ capital structure is affected by corporate income taxes using confidential company-level tax returns for a large sample of UK firms. Exploiting variation in companies’ marginal tax rates, we find a positive and substantial long-run tax effect on leverage. Leverage responds more to decreases in the marginal tax rate, and it responds to changes in the marginal rather than the average tax rate. Most importantly, we find that the marginal tax rate based on tax returns has greater explanatory power for companies’ leverage than the marginal tax rate based on financial statements. Our study suggests that errors in the measurement for tax incentives using financial statements could lead to underestimation of the tax effects on capital structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Devereux, Michael P. & Maffini, Giorgia & Xing, Jing, 2018. "Corporate tax incentives and capital structure: New evidence from UK firm-level tax returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 250-266.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:88:y:2018:i:c:p:250-266
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.12.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426617302923
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.12.004?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graham, John R. & Mills, Lillian F., 2008. "Using tax return data to simulate corporate marginal tax rates," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2-3), pages 366-388, December.
    2. Flannery, Mark J. & Hankins, Kristine Watson, 2013. "Estimating dynamic panel models in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-19.
    3. Nadja Dwenger & Viktor Steiner, 2014. "Financial leverage and corporate taxation: evidence from German corporate tax return data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Gordon, Roger H. & Lee, Young, 2001. "Do taxes affect corporate debt policy? Evidence from U.S. corporate tax return data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 195-224, November.
    5. Giorgia Maffini & Jing Xing & Michael P Devereux, 2016. "The impact of investment incentives: evidence from UK corporation tax returns," Working Papers 1601, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    6. John R. Graham & Mark T. Leary & Michael R. Roberts, 2013. "A Century of Capital Structure: The Leveraging of Corporate America," NBER Chapters, in: New Perspectives on Corporate Capital Structure, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Feld, Lars P. & Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Overesch, Michael, 2013. "Capital structure choice and company taxation: A meta-study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2850-2866.
    8. Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2008. "Capital structure and international debt shifting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 80-118, April.
    9. John R. Graham & Mark T. Leary, 2011. "A Review of Empirical Capital Structure Research and Directions for the Future," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 309-345, December.
    10. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    11. Faccio, Mara & Xu, Jin, 2015. "Taxes and Capital Structure," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 277-300, June.
    12. Arena, Matteo P. & Roper, Andrew H., 2010. "The effect of taxes on multinational debt location," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 637-654, December.
    13. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    14. Rosanne Altshuler & Alan J. Auerbach, 1990. "The Significance of Tax Law Asymmetries: An Empirical Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 61-86.
    15. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    16. Michael L. Lemmon & Michael R. Roberts & Jaime F. Zender, 2008. "Back to the Beginning: Persistence and the Cross‐Section of Corporate Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1575-1608, August.
    17. Cloyd, CB & Pratt, J & Stock, T, 1996. "The use of financial accounting choice to support aggressive tax positions: Public and private firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 23-43.
    18. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Craig Doidge & Alexander Dyck, 2015. "Taxes and Corporate Policies: Evidence from a Quasi Natural Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 45-89, February.
    20. Murray Z. Frank & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2009. "Capital Structure Decisions: Which Factors Are Reliably Important?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 1-37, March.
    21. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    22. Hovakimian, Armen & Opler, Tim & Titman, Sheridan, 2001. "The Debt-Equity Choice," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 1-24, March.
    23. Heider, Florian & Ljungqvist, Alexander, 2015. "As certain as debt and taxes: Estimating the tax sensitivity of leverage from state tax changes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 684-712.
    24. Weber, Caroline E., 2014. "Toward obtaining a consistent estimate of the elasticity of taxable income using difference-in-differences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 90-103.
    25. Mihir A. Desai, 2003. "The Divergence between Book Income and Tax Income," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, pages 169-208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Flannery, Mark J. & Rangan, Kasturi P., 2006. "Partial adjustment toward target capital structures," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 469-506, March.
    27. Devereux, Michael P. & Keen, Michael & Schiantarelli, Fabio, 1994. "Corporation tax asymmetries and investment : Evidence from U.K. panel data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 395-418, March.
    28. Matteo P. Arena & George W. Kutner, 2015. "Territorial Tax System Reform and Corporate Financial Policies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(8), pages 2250-2280.
    29. Giorgia Maffini & Jing Xing & Michael P. Devereux, 2019. "The Impact of Investment Incentives: Evidence from UK Corporation Tax Returns," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 361-389, August.
    30. Barclay, Michael J. & Heitzman, Shane M. & Smith, Clifford W., 2013. "Debt and taxes: Evidence from the real estate industry," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 74-93.
    31. repec:bla:jfinan:v:44:y:1989:i:1:p:19-40 is not listed on IDEAS
    32. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    33. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:6:p:2451-2487 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    35. John R. Graham, 2003. "Taxes and Corporate Finance: A Review," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1075-1129.
    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. Elena Alexandra Nenu & Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina, 2018. "The Impact of Capital Structure on Risk and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence for the Bucharest Stock Exchange Listed Companies," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-29, April.
    2. E. Mark Curtis & Daniel G. Garrett & Eric C. Ohrn & Kevin A. Roberts & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, 2021. "Capital Investment and Labor Demand," NBER Working Papers 29485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jones, Edward & Kwansa, Nana Abena & Li, Hao, 2020. "How does internationalization affect capital raising decisions? Evidence from UK firms," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 57.
    4. Miglo, Anton, 2021. "A New Capital Structure Theory: The Four-Factor Model," MPRA Paper 105102, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Peter Vaz da Fonseca & Michele Nascimento Juca, 2020. "The Influence of Taxes on Foreign Direct Investment: Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 55-77.
    6. Ricca, Leandro Telles & Jucá, Michele Nascimento & Hadad Junior, Eli, 2021. "Tax benefit and bankruptcy cost of debt," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 82-92.
    7. Alessandra Amendola & Marinella Boccia & Gianluca Mele & Luca Sensini, 2023. "Do fiscal policies affect the firms’ growth and performance? Urban versus rural area," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 1-33, March.
    8. repec:ces:ifowps:_2020 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jin, Xiaoye, 2021. "Corporate tax aggressiveness and capital structure decisions: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 94-111.
    10. Sobiech, Anna L. & Chronopoulos, Dimitris K. & Wilson, John O.S., 2021. "The real effects of bank taxation: Evidence for corporate financing and investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    11. Umar Farooq & Suhaib Anagreh & Mohammad Ahmad Al-Omari & Mosab I. Tabash, 2022. "Corporate Tax Rate, Financing Policy and Investment Decisions: Evidence from 8 Asian Economies," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 242(3), pages 29-51, September.

    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. Stöckl Matthias & Winner Hannes, 2013. "Körperschaftsbesteuerung und Unternehmensverschuldung: Evidenz aus einem Europäischen Firmenpanel / Capital Structure and Corporate Taxation: Empirical Evidence from European Panel Data," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 233(2), pages 188-205, April.
    2. Feld, Lars P. & Heckemeyer, Jost H. & Overesch, Michael, 2013. "Capital structure choice and company taxation: A meta-study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2850-2866.
    3. Temimi, Akram & Zeitun, Rami & Mimouni, Karim, 2016. "How does the tax status of a country impact capital structure? Evidence from the GCC region," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 71-89.
    4. Matthias Stöckl & Hannes Winner, 2012. "Körperschaftsbesteuerung und Unternehmensverschuldung. Evidenz aus einem europäischen Firmenpanel," WIFO Working Papers 422, WIFO.
    5. José A. Clemente-Almendros & Francisco Sogorb-Mira, 2016. "The effect of taxes on the debt policy of spanish listed companies," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 359-391, August.
    6. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    7. Zhou, Qing & Tan, Kelvin Jui Keng & Faff, Robert & Zhu, Yushu, 2016. "Deviation from target capital structure, cost of equity and speed of adjustment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 99-120.
    8. Dang, Viet Anh & Kim, Minjoo & Shin, Yongcheol, 2015. "In search of robust methods for dynamic panel data models in empirical corporate finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 84-98.
    9. Dang, Viet Anh & Kim, Minjoo & Shin, Yongcheol, 2014. "Asymmetric adjustment toward optimal capital structure: Evidence from a crisis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 226-242.
    10. Thomas Hemmelgarn & Daniel Teichmann, 2014. "Tax reforms and the capital structure of banks," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 645-693, August.
    11. Elif Acar & Gamze Vural & Emin Hüseyin Çetenak, 2020. "Evidence for Financial Hierarchy Theory in Capital Structure Decisions: Data from BIST Companies," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 29-50.
    12. Pinto, João M. & Silva, Cátia S., 2021. "Does export intensity affect corporate leverage? Evidence from Portuguese SMEs," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    13. İbrahim Yarba & Z. Nuray Güner, 2020. "Leverage dynamics: Do financial development and government leverage matter? Evidence from a major developing economy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 2473-2507, November.
    14. Bontempi, Maria Elena & Bottazzi, Laura & Golinelli, Roberto, 2020. "A multilevel index of heterogeneous short-term and long-term debt dynamics," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Hanifa, Mohamed Hisham & Masih, Mansur & Bacha, Obiyathulla, 2014. "Testing Sukuk And Conventional Bond Offers Based On Corporate Financing Theories Using Partial Adjustment Models: Evidence From Malaysian Listed Firms," MPRA Paper 56953, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Girma, Sourafel & Shah, M. Eskandar & Williams, Jonathan, 2014. "Dynamic capital structure and political patronage: The case of Malaysia," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 117-128.
    17. Peter Vaz da Fonseca & Michele Nascimento Juca & Wilson Toshiro Nakamura, 2020. "Debt Tax Benefits in a High Tax Emerging Market: Evidence from Brazil," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 35-52.
    18. Peter Vaz da Fonseca & Andrea Decourt Savelli & Michele Nascimento Juca, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Influence of Taxation on Corporate Capital Structure," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 155-178.
    19. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Viet Anh & Moshirian, Fariborz & Nguyen, Lily & Zhang, Bohui, 2019. "News media coverage and corporate leverage adjustments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    20. Remco Mocking & Joep Steegmans, 2017. "Capital structure determinants and adjustment speed: An empirical analysis of Dutch SMEs," CPB Discussion Paper 357.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate taxation; Capital structure; Tax returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

    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:eee:jbfina:v:88:y:2018:i:c:p:250-266. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.