Macroeconomic Effects of Dividend Taxation with Investment Credit Limits

A dynamic general equilibrium model augmented for an occasionally-binding investment borrowing limit reconciles competing views on the macroeconomic effects of dividend taxation. Permanent tax reforms are distortionary in the credit-constrained long-run equilibrium but are neutral otherwise. Temporary tax cuts may be expansionary or contractionary in the short-term depending on their scale and on the firm's initial and interim credit position. Interactions between payout tax shocks and the financial constraint tightness produce state-contingent, non-linear, and asymmetrical macroeconomic dynamics. These findings are consistent with the varied responses in investment rates and asset prices observed in the data following historical dividend tax changes