Do personal taxes affect corporate financing decisions?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Graham, JR
• 署名单位: Duke University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(99)00006-7
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 147-185
• 关键词: debt; corporate taxes; personal taxes; capital structure; taxes

摘要

The traditional view is that interest deductibility encourages firms to use debt financing; however, some argue that the personal tax disadvantage to interest offsets the corporate tax advantage. This paper investigates the degree to which personal taxes affect corporate financing decisions. In cross-sectional regressions that control for personal taxes, debt usage is positively correlated with tax rates in each year 1980-1994, with significant coefficients in almost every year. A specification that adjusts tax benefits for the personal tax penalty statistically dominates a specification that does not. The positive (negative) effect of corporate (personal) taxes on debt usage is distinctly identified. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.