IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v73y2004i1p145-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The value of tax shields is NOT equal to the present value of tax shields

Author

Listed:
  • Fernandez, Pablo

Abstract

We show that the value of tax shields is the difference between the present values of two different cash flows with their own risk: the present value of taxes for the unlevered company and the present value of taxes for the levered company. For perpetuities without costs of leverage, the value of tax shields is equal to the tax rate times the value of debt. Since the existence of leverage costs is independent of taxes, the value of tax shields when there are no taxes should be negative. We later on look at the case of constant growth and derive similar implications. We then identify 9 valuation theories proposed in the literature to estimate the present value of tax shields and show that only one valuation method is consistent when we look at the case of constant growth and no leverage costs. Three theories provide consistent valuations once leverage costs and growth are allowed for. For constant growth companies, we claim that the value of the tax shield in a world with no leverage cost is the present value of the debt (D) times the tax rate (T) times the required return to the unlevered equity (Ku), discounted at the unlevered cost of equity (Ku): VTS = PV[Ku; D T Ku]. Please note that this does not mean that the appropriate discount for the tax shields is the unlevered cost of equity. We discount D T Ku, which is higher than the shield. This expression arises as the difference of two present values, each with different risk
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Fernandez, Pablo, 2004. "The value of tax shields is NOT equal to the present value of tax shields," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 145-165, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:73:y:2004:i:1:p:145-165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-405X(03)00239-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard S Ruback, 2002. "Capital Cash Flows: A Simple Approach to Valuing Risky Cash Flows," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 31(2), Summer.
    2. Myers, Stewart C, 1974. "Interactions of Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions-Implications for Capital Budgeting," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Joseph Tham & Ignacio Velez-Pareja, 2000. "The Correct Discount Rate for the Tax Shield: The N-period Case," Proyecciones Financieras y Valoración 3578, Master Consultores.
    4. Miles, James A. & Ezzell, John R., 1980. "The Weighted Average Cost of Capital, Perfect Capital Markets, and Project Life: A Clarification," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 719-730, September.
    5. Kaplan, Steven N & Ruback, Richard S, 1995. "The Valuation of Cash Flow Forecasts: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1059-1093, September.
    6. Miles, James A & Ezzell, John R, 1985. "Reformulating Tax Shield Valuation: A Note," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(5), pages 1485-1492, December.
    7. Robert A. Taggart & Jr., 1991. "Consistent valuation and Cost of Capital Expressions With Corporate and Personal Taxes," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 20(3), Fall.
    8. Isik Inselbag & Howard Kaufold, 1997. "Two Dcf Approaches For Valuing Companies Under Alternative Financing Strategies (And How To Choose Between Them)," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 10(1), pages 114-122, March.
    9. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    10. Lewellen, Wilbur G. & Emery, Douglas R., 1986. "Corporate Debt Management and the Value of the Firm," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 415-426, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Fernandez, Pablo, 2005. "Financial literature about discounted cash flow valuation," IESE Research Papers D/606, IESE Business School.
    2. Fernandez, Pablo, 2003. "Equivalence of ten different methods for valuing companies by cash flow discounting," IESE Research Papers D/524, IESE Business School.
    3. Fernandez, Pablo, 2003. "Levered and unlevered Beta," IESE Research Papers D/488, IESE Business School.
    4. Fernandez, Pablo, 2004. "Equivalence of ten different discounted cash flow valuation methods," IESE Research Papers D/549, IESE Business School.
    5. Fernandez, Pablo, 2004. "Value of tax shields and the risk of the net increase of debt, The. Year 2004," IESE Research Papers D/544, IESE Business School.
    6. Fernandez, Pablo, 2007. "A more realistic valuation: APV and WACC with constant book leverage ratio," IESE Research Papers D/715, IESE Business School.
    7. Schauten Marc B. J., 2013. "Three discount methods for valuing projects and the required return on equity," Contaduría y Administración, Accounting and Management, vol. 58(1), pages 63-85, enero-mar.
    8. Fernandez, Pablo, 2006. "The correct value of tax shields: An analysis of 23 theories," IESE Research Papers D/628, IESE Business School.
    9. Fernández, Pablo, 1995. "Equivalence of the APV, WACC and flows to equity approaches to firm valuation," IESE Research Papers D/292, IESE Business School.
    10. Ralf Diedrich & Stefan Dierkes & Hans-Christian Gröger, 2022. "A note on the cost of capital with fixed payout ratios," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1559-1575, November.
    11. Ignacio Velez-Pareja & Julian Benavides Franco, 2011. "Cost of Capital when Dividends are Deductible," Brazilian Review of Finance, Brazilian Society of Finance, vol. 9(3), pages 309-334.
    12. Cooper, Ian A. & Nyborg, Kjell G., 2006. "The value of tax shields IS equal to the present value of tax shields," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 215-225, July.
    13. Fernandez, Pablo, 2006. "A general formula for the WACC: A correction," IESE Research Papers D/663, IESE Business School.
    14. Pierru, Axel & Babusiaux, Denis, 2010. "WACC and free cash flows: A simple adjustment for capitalized interest costs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 240-243, May.
    15. Fernández, Pablo, 1999. "Equivalence of the different discounted cash flow valuation methods. Different alternatives for determining the discounted value of tax shields and their implications for the valuation," IESE Research Papers D/400, IESE Business School.
    16. Fernández , Pablo, 2002. "Valuing companies by cash flow discounting: Ten methods and nine theories," IESE Research Papers D/451, IESE Business School.
    17. Pasquale De Luca, 2017. "Debt Level and the Firm Levered Cost of Capital," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(5), pages 475-484.
    18. Richard Sweeney, 2014. "Equivalent valuations in cash flow and accounting models," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 29-49, January.
    19. Dirk Beyer, 2018. "A matrix approach to valuation and performance measurement based on accounting information considering different financing policies," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 37-61, March.
    20. Stefan Dierkes & Ulrich Schäfer, 2017. "Corporate taxes, capital structure, and valuation: Combining Modigliani/Miller and Miles/Ezzell," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 363-383, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    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:jfinec:v:73:y:2004:i:1:p:145-165. 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/inca/505576 .

    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.