The Effect of an Allowance for Corporate Equity on Capital Structure: Evidence From Austria

Abstract

We contribute to the empirical literature on the debt bias of corporate income taxation through a firm-level evaluation of the allowance for corporate equity (ACE) in Austria. We find that the Austrian ACE tax system increased corporate equity ratios by approximately 1.36 to 2.30 percentage points. Additionally, we find significant differences in the application of the ACE tax system depending on firm-specific dividend levels and firm-specific ownership structures. In particular, we find that the cost of constraining dividends appears to be higher than the tax benefit of the ACE tax system. Additionally, we find that firms with dispersed ownership refrain from applying the ACE tax system, which might be due to the fact that firms with less dispersed ownership can react more quickly to tax law changes.