Small Business, Capital Investment, and Tax Reform
通过调查比较了1986年税改法案中取消投资税收抵免和延长折旧年限对小企业和大企业资本投资决策的影响，发现两者均受到中等负面冲击，小企业受影响略大但差异不显著。
In spite of the recognized importance of small business, relatively little research has addressed how small and large businesses react to changes in income tax regulations (DeCelles and Wichmann 1986; Royalty, Calhoun, Bunn, and Wells 1988), as well as the effects of those changes on capital investment purchases (Brock 1988, Diss 1986). This article presents the results of a survey that compared how small and large businesses' capital investment purchases were affected by two provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1986: (a) withdrawal of the investment tax credit, and (b) lengthened depreciation schedules (Angell 1988, Nadeau 1988). Survey results show that regardless of business size, removal of investment incentives had a moderate negative effect on capital investment decisions. Each of the provisions modified intended investment more for small businesses than for large businesses, but the difference is not statistically significant. RECENT LITERATURE Many studies have compared small and large businesses' characteristics; and the record is clear that small businesses have historically dominated industries such as retail, services, and types of manufacturing that required comparatively lower amounts of capital (U.S. Small Business Administration 1989, Van Auken and Carter 1989). These characteristics are related to two differences in small and large businesses' finances. First, small businesses rely more on profits and short-term borrowing to meet financial needs, and large businesses rely more on long-term borrowing or the sale of new shares. Second, small businesses have greater concerns about cash flow or liquidity than large businesses (Bruno and Tyebjee 1985; Day, Stoll, and Whaley 1985; Scott and Johnson 1982; Walker and Petty 1978). Also, although large businesses may have cash flow problems, they also have easier access to credit markets, which enables them to survive temporary liquidity shortfalls. In contrast, small businesses do not have this luxury. Such differences in financial characteristics are well documented; yet some closely related tax effects are not (Barton and Matthews 1989, Norton 1990, Van Auken and Carter 1989). Tax legislation that changes the cash flows from capital purchases should influence business investment (Dammon and Senbet 1988, Kaufman and Gitman 1988, Mole 1987); and there have been substantial changes in the tax treatment of business investment during the last decade. The U.S. Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) of 1981 reinstituted an investment tax credit that was designed to stimulate investment in machinery and equipment (Siropolis 1986). This investment tax credit allowed businesses to reduce their federal income tax bill by as much as $25,000. However, the U.S. Tax Reform Act (TRA) of 1986 withdrew the investment tax credit and lengthened depreciation schedules (Brock 1988, Angell 1988, Kaufman and Gitman 1988). Several studies tested the impact of the TRA of 1986 on large businesses' investment purchases (Angell 1988, Kaufman and Gitman 1988); yet no empirical research currently provides information about how the 1986 reforms affect the investment purchase decisions of small businesses. Given the different financing characteristics of small and large firms, it is reasonable to believe they will react differently to such tax legislation. One study has suggested that all tax deductions and tax credits were relatively less important to small businesses (Day, Stoll, and Whaley 1985). The premises for these conclusions were that (1) small businesses have lower effective tax rates, and (2) small businesses are more subject to failure than large businesses. Lower effective tax rates would, of course, make depreciation and investment tax credits less valuable. However, more recent research has suggested that small businesses may, in fact, have higher effective tax rates (Singh, Wilder, and Chan 1987). The research described herein was designed to determine whether small businesses were more affected by lengthened depreciation schedules and investment tax credit withdrawal than large businesses. …