This study examines the dividend trends of 590 Indian companies over the period 1992–2004 of all manufacturing, non-government, non-financial, and non-banking companies listed on BSE for which there was no missing financial information over the period of the study. Dividend payout has been chosen for the purpose of examining the impact of taxation on dividend policy. Analysis was done for the full period under consideration, immediate one year of tax regime change, and immediate three years of tax regime change so as to conclusively establish the results and also to note the variations in results over different time frames, if any. For the purpose of this study, the sample was classified on the basis of dividend history, industry, and size. Of the 590 companies, 240 companies were regular payers—the companies that had paid dividend regularly without ever skipping the payments throughout the period of the study. According to tax preference or trade-off theory, favourable dividend tax should lead to higher payouts. The Union Budget of 1997 made dividends taxable in the hands of the company paying them and not in the hands of the investors receiving them. The corporate dividend tax aimed at improving the economic growth and flexibility by eliminating the tax bias against equity-financed investments thereby promoting saving and investment. The new system aimed at reducing the tax bias against capital gains in the earlier tax system, encouraging investment, and enhancing the long-term growth potential of the Indian economy. As compared to the earlier tax regime where the recipient shareholder paid the tax on the dividend received primarily on the basis of marginal tax slab rate applicable to him/her (varying between 0% to 30%), in the current structure of corporate dividend tax, the dividend paying companies pay dividend tax at a flat rate of 12.5 per cent as of financial year 2005–06. Implicitly, the present corporate dividend tax regime can be termed as a more favourable tax policy. The analysis of influence of changes in the tax regime on dividend behaviour reveals the following: Trade-off or tax preference theory does appear to hold true in the Indian context in the case of both the total sample companies as well as the regular payers. While in the case of total sample companies, the results are significant for the entire period of study and the immediate three year period, in case of regular payer, the results are significant for all the three time periods analysed. Though the results are somewhat mixed, it can be largely inferred that there is a significant difference in average dividend payout ratio in the two different tax regimes. There are wide industry-wise and size-wise variations in empirical findings visible over the period of study.
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