Abstract
We find that corporate income tax (CIT) rates are significantly positively associated with corporate debt and negatively associated with household debt, using panel data of 28 OECD countries between 1995 and 2015. The found association between CIT and debt comes from small countries where CIT is more exogenous due to tax competition. The tax deductibility of interest payments encourages firms to use more debt when CIT is high. If the total supply of loanable funds is not affected by a lower CIT, a lower CIT leads to a larger fraction of the total private debt incurred by the household sector. The estimated association becomes stronger in regressions with difference-stationary variables. A decrease in the CIT rate can explain around one-fourth of the increase in the average household debt incurred during the last two decades. The paper is the first study to investigate and yield supportive, though weak, evidence of distortion in household indebtedness caused by a CIT cut.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.