U.S. Multinational Companies’ Payout and Investment Decisions in Response to International Tax Provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
研究了2017年美国税改对跨国公司派息和投资行为的影响，发现流动性、投资机会和借贷成本决定了企业是增加国内投资、回购股票还是提高股息，并指出高海外现金企业可能意外增加海外投资。
ABSTRACT The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) dramatically changed U.S. taxation of foreign earnings for U.S. multinational companies (MNCs). Specifically, the TCJA required taxation of existing unremitted foreign earnings through a deemed repatriation and effectively eliminated future repatriation taxes through a 100 percent dividends received deduction. Additionally, the bill introduced the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) regime. We examine MNCs’ responses to the TCJA and find that spending and investment behavior depends on liquidity, investment opportunities, and borrowing costs. Domestic capital expenditures and share repurchases increased for MNCs with low domestic liquidity and high domestic investment opportunities. In contrast, MNCs with low domestic liquidity (high cost of debt) and low domestic investment opportunities increased dividends (decreased debt). Finally, we find that MNCs with high foreign cash and most vulnerable to the GILTI regime increased their foreign but not domestic capital expenditures—a potential unintended consequence. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: F23; G31; G38; H25; M40; M48.