The Effect of Foreign Cash Holdings on Internal Capital Markets and Firm Financing
The Effect of Foreign Cash Holdings on Internal Capital Markets and Firm Financing Lisa De Simone Stanford Graduate School of Business Rebecca Lester* Stanford Graduate School of Business October 2018 Abstract Prior to 2018, U.S. repatriation taxes motivated companies to retain cash offshore. Using confidential jurisdiction-specific data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we find that firms with high tax-induced foreign cash have approximately 3.3 percent higher domestic liabilities relative to other multinationals, equivalent to $152.2 million more domestic debt per firm, or approximately $98.9-$141.9 billion in aggregate. We next examine motives for firms with tax- induced foreign cash to borrow domestically, finding this behavior is associated with shareholder payouts and some domestic investment spending. Finally, repatriations and intercompany loans from foreign subsidiaries act as substitutes and complements, respectively, to external borrowings. Keywords: Cash, Tax, Debt JEL Codes: M40, G32, G35, H25, F23 ______________________ We thank Joshua Anderson, Cristi Gleason, Jim Fetzer, John Gallemore, Michelle Hanlon, Shane Heitzman, Jim Hines, Stacie Laplante (Discussant), Zawadi Lemayian, Jon Mandrano, Kevin Markle, Peter Merrill, Lil Mills, Patricia Naranjo, Michelle Nessa, Mitchell Petersen, Joe Piotroski, Nemit Shroff, Rodrigo Verdi, Brady Williams, Bill Zeile, and Christina Zhu, and seminar participants at the Federal Reserve (Washington, D.C.), 2017 George Washington University Cherry Blossoms Conference, the International Tax Policy Form, London Business School, the 2018 Midwest Finance Association Annual Meeting, MIT, Stanford Accounting Summer Camp 2017, the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa, and the University of Texas for helpful comments on this paper. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the International Tax Policy Forum and research assistance from Mason Jiang and Todd Hines.
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