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Does lowering dividend tax rates increase dividends repatriated?: evidence of intra-firm cross-border dividend repatriation policies by German Multinational Enterprises

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  • Leibrecht, Markus
  • Bellak, Christian
  • Wild, Michael

Abstract

This paper explores the impact dividend taxes exert on the dividends repatriated from foreign affiliates to their German parent company. Based on an augmented Lintner model of firms' dividend payout decisions, the paper focusses on cross-border intra-firm dividend payments of wholly-owned foreign affiliates in the manufacturing sector. Firm-level data from the Microdatabase Direct Investment (MiDi) of the Deutsche Bundesbank is used. Results firstly signal the validity of the original Lintner model for cross-border intra-firm dividend payments of German affiliates abroad, although the target payout ratio and the degree of dividend smoothing drops substantially once timeinvariant unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. Secondly, results from an augmented Lintner model imply that increases in dividend taxes indeed have a statistically significant negative impact on the expected value of dividends repatriated: Evaluated at the overall mean dividend payment a one percentage point increase in the dividend tax rate would decrease dividends repatriated by about 3.5 percent. Evaluated at the mean of positive dividend payments a semi-elasticity of -1.6 is derived.

Suggested Citation

  • Leibrecht, Markus & Bellak, Christian & Wild, Michael, 2009. "Does lowering dividend tax rates increase dividends repatriated?: evidence of intra-firm cross-border dividend repatriation policies by German Multinational Enterprises," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2009,19, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdp1:200919
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    Cited by:

    1. Timothy Goodspeed & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Li Zhang, 2011. "Public Policies and FDI Location: Differences between Developing and Developed Countries," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 67(2), pages 171-191, June.
    2. M. Jonathan C. Eklund, 2022. "Do multinational firms respond to personal dividend income tax rates?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 1743-1771, April.
    3. Jarkko Harju & Seppo Kari, 2017. "Dividend Taxes and Decisions of MNEs: Evidence from a Finnish Tax Reform," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 63(1), pages 45-77.
    4. Gomes Nogueira, Caroline & Padilla, Ramón, 2015. "Determinants and home-country effects of FDI outflows: Evidence from Latin American countries," Estudios y Perspectivas – Sede Subregional de la CEPAL en México 38914, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    5. Harendt, Christoph & Dreßler, Daniel & Overesch, Michael, 2016. "The Impact of Tax Treaties and Repatriation Taxes on FDI Revisited," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145588, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Eduardo C. Oliveira & Michele N. Juca, 2021. "Multinational Dividend Policies: A Systematic Literature Review to Future," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(1), pages 442-465.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dividend policy; taxes; lintner model; multinational enterprise;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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