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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 32 No. 9 2008

Inside shareholders’ effective tax rates and dividends

Martin Holmén; John D. Knopf1; Stefan Peterson2

1 University of Connecticut · 2 Weavering Capital, Gothenburg, Sweden

open access

Abstract

Using information collected from the Swedish tax authorities, we calculate insiders’ actual effective tax rates on dividends. With this unique dataset, we find a significant negative cross-sectional relationship between insiders’ effective tax rates and dividend payout. This result is consistent with a tax-induced clientele effect for dividends. We also look at the impact of large block trades on dividends. We find that when insiders with zero effective taxes sell blocks, subsequent dividend payments are significantly more likely to decrease. This provides evidence that large shareholders are adjusting dividends for their individual tax situations.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2007.12.048
Volume
32
Issue
9
Pages
1860-1869
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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