Hold Or Sell? How Capital Gains Taxation Affects Holding Decisions
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Hold or sell? How capital gains taxation affects holding decisions Annika Hegemann∗, Angela Kunoth#, Kristina Ruppy and Caren Sureth-Sloanez Abstract: Investments with exit flexibility require decisions regarding both the investment and holding period. Because selling an investment often leads to taxable capital gains, which crucially depend on the duration of an investment, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on exit timing under different tax systems. We observed that capital gains taxation delays exit decisions but loses its decision relevance for very long holdings. Often the optimal exit time, which indicates the maximal present value of future cashflows, cannot be deter- mined analytically. However, we identify the breakeven exit time that guarantees present values exceeding those of an immediate sale. While, after-taxes, an immediate sale is often optimal, long holding periods might also be attractive for investors depending on the de- gree of income and corporate tax integration. A classic corporate tax system often indicates holdings over more than 100 periods. By contrast, a shareholder relief system indicates the earliest breakeven exit time and thus the highest level of exit timing flexibility. Surprisingly, high retention rates are likely to accelerate sales under a classic corporate system. Addition- ally, the worst exit time, which should be avoided by investors, differs tremendously across tax systems. For an integrated tax system with full imputation, the worst time is reached earlier than under partial or non-integrated systems. These results could help to predict in- vestors’ behavior regarding changes in capital gains taxation and thus are of interest for both investors and tax policymakers. Furthermore, the results emphasize the need to control for the underlying tax system in cross-country empirical studies. Keywords: Capital Gains Taxation, Holding Period, Exit Flexibility, Investment Decisions, Timing Decisions JEL-Classification: H20, H21, H25 Acknowledgements: Earlier versions of this paper were entitled "Impact of Capital Gains Taxation on the Holding Period of Investments under Different Tax Systems" and "Impact of Capital Gains Taxation on Investment and Holding Decisions under Different Tax Systems". We are grateful for very helpful suggestions by two anonymous reviewers. We thank Stephan Alberternst and Pia Kortebusch for valuable suggestions on an earlier draft. We are particu- larly grateful to Boqiang Huang for technical support and helpful advices on using MatLab. The usual disclaimer applies. Financial support by the German Research Fund (DFG), project no. SU 501/4-2, and the University of Paderborn is gratefully acknowledged. ∗ University of Paderborn, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Warburger Str.100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany. Tel.: ++49-5251-60-1875, email: [email protected], www.upb.de/taxation. # University of Cologne, Mathematical Institute, Weyertal 86-90, 50931 Köln, Germany. Tel.: ++49-221-470-6080, email: [email protected], www.mi.uni-koeln.de/AG-Kunoth/. y University of Paderborn, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Warburger Str.100, Paderborn, Germany. Email: [email protected]. z University of Paderborn, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Warburger Str.100, 33098 Paderborn, Germany. Tel.: ++49-5251-60-1781, email: [email protected], www.upb.de/taxation and Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria. Contents 1 Introduction1 2 Prior Literature4 3 Model 7 3.1 Tax-free Model................................. 7 3.2 General Tax Model .............................. 9 4 Holding Decisions 12 4.1 Parameter sensitivity............................. 12 4.2 Analytical Approach ............................. 18 4.3 Worst Exit Time................................ 20 4.4 Extremes at the Boundaries......................... 22 4.5 Numerical Analysis.............................. 28 5 Conclusion 33 I Hold or sell? How capital gains taxation affects holding decisions Abstract: Investments with exit flexibility require decisions regarding both the in- vestment and holding period. Because selling an investment often leads to taxable capital gains, which crucially depend on the duration of an investment, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on exit timing under different tax systems. We observed that capital gains taxation delays exit decisions but loses its decision rele- vance for very long holdings. Often the optimal exit time, which indicates the maximal present value of future cash flows, cannot be determined analytically. However, we identify the breakeven exit time that guarantees present values exceeding those of an immediate sale. While, after-taxes, an immediate sale is often optimal, long hold- ing periods might also be attractive for investors depending on the degree of income and corporate tax integration. A classic corporate tax system often indicates hold- ings over more than 100 periods. By contrast, a shareholder relief system indicates the earliest breakeven exit time and thus the highest level of exit timing flexibility. Surprisingly, high retention rates are likely to accelerate sales under a classic corpo- rate system. Additionally, the worst exit time, which should be avoided by investors, differs tremendously across tax systems. For an integrated tax system with full impu- tation, the worst time is reached earlier than under partial or non-integrated systems. These results could help to predict investors’ behavior regarding changes in capital gains taxation and thus are of interest for both investors and tax policymakers. Fur- thermore, the results emphasize the need to control for the underlying tax system in cross-country empirical studies. Keywords: Capital Gains Taxation, Holding Period, Exit Flexibility, Investment Deci- sions, Timing Decisions JEL-Classification: H20, H21, H25 1 Introduction Entrepreneurial investments are characterized not only by decisions to undertake an investment but also by the holding period. Taxes are well known to be impor- tant parameters of the institutional environment of investments (for an overview, see Shackelford and Shevlin 2001; Graham 2008; Hundsdoerfer et al. 2008; Hanlon and Heitzman 2010). Taxes on both the corporate and shareholder levels can significantly affect investment and divestment decisions. Specifically, selling an investment often produces capital gains, inducing capital gains taxes that are anticipated by investors. Capital gains taxes are well-known to induce lock-in effects (Constantinides 1983), thus impeding exits. Capital gains are often due to retained earnings; hence, they crucially depend on the duration of an investment. Because the duration of an investment can affect its after-tax profitability, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on the holding period. The relevance of the holding period in investment decisions was emphasized by Alles and Murray (2009), who found a significant impact of holding pe- riods on investment performance for different asset classes, and Cheng et al. (2010), who built on prior empirical studies and theoretically showed that the decision about the time to sell is crucial for real estate investments and their performance. Against this background, the following research questions arise: When should an investor di- vest? To what extent does capital gains taxation affect exit decisions? Because prior theoretical research has indicated that the manner in which capital gains taxes are em- bedded in the overall tax system is crucial for their impact on investment (König and Wosnitza 2000; Schreiber and Rogall 2000; Sureth and Langeleh 2007), we distinguish among three tax systems that differ in the degree of the integration of corporate-level taxes into income taxation. To what extent does the underlying tax system impact the effect of capital gains taxation on the holding period? No studies to date have analyt- ically addressed the impact of capital gains taxation in different tax environments on holding periods. We want to fill this gap, and we focus on both different tax systems, including capital gains taxes and tax rate differentials, and on the impact of retention policy. We take the investor’s point of view and focus on investment in corporate shares. After an initial investment, the investor receives dividends and/or capital gains in subsequent periods. In addition to, or alternatively by, investing in a corporation, 1 the investor can invest in the capital market and earn interest. Interest, dividends, and capital gains are all considered capital income, but they are typically subject to different tax rules, e.g., different tax scales. We assume symmetric taxation of capi- tal gains and losses. Consequently, profits are subject to the profit tax rate. Losses are tax-deductible at the same tax rate. We focus on the variable “time of sale” to analyze whether the investment becomes more or less profitable under a classic cor- porate tax system, a full imputation tax system or a shareholder relief tax system for different exit times. Because exit time drives the magnitude of capital gains tax- ation, it is particularly important to investigate the impact of capital gains taxes on investment decisions. This importance is particularly true, because many countries have implemented capital gains taxes – e.g., Canada imposed capital gains taxation in 1972, Ireland in 1975 and Australia in 1985 – while other countries abolished capital gains taxation between 2000 and 2012, e.g., Cyprus,