股利税与资本结构:中国的经验证据

Dividend Tax and Capital Structure: Evidence from China

已有研究主要考察了企业所得税对资本结构的影响,却较少有研究探讨个人所得税对资本结构的影响,基于中国的此类研究则处于空白。我国2012年颁布的股息红利差别化个人所得税政策,将投资者的股利税与持股时间相结合。基于这一税收改革,我们发现,投资者持股时间越长(短)的企业,因为在改革之后其投资者的股利税会下降(上升),这些企业债务融资的比重显著降低(提高)。此外,股利税对资本结构的影响,在股利支付力度较大的企业更为显著。进一步,股利税对不同类型债务融资比重的影响存在差异。本文的结论不仅为"税收与公司财务"这一经典的学术领域提供了来自中国的经验证据,也补充了中国在相关学术领域的缺失。

The extant literature focuses mostly on the impact of corporate tax on capital structure. Few studies explore this impact from the perspective of personal tax. Evidence from a Chinese institutional background is especially limited. The 2012 dividend tax reform in China directly links individual investors' dividend tax to the length of the share holding period. Using this reform,we find that firms with a long( short) investors' share holding period experience a significant decrease( increase) in debt financing due to decreased( increased) dividend tax. We also show that the effect of dividend tax on capital structure is more pronounced in large dividend payout firms. Further,we find that the effect of dividend tax on debt varies among the different forms of debt financing. Our study adds to the literature on tax and corporate finance and fills a gap in Chinese research on related areas.