Question

Suppose that the tax rate on personal income, tp, is equal to 40%; the corporate tax rate, tc, is equal to 35%; and the capital gains tax rate, tcg, is 20%. Also assume that the before-tax rate of return on investment to both the corporate and partnership form is 15% per year. These tax rates and investment returns are constant over time. On the basis of these facts, identify the following as true or false. (Support your answers with numerical examples.)

a. The annualized after-tax rate of return to investing in the corporate form increases with the length of the investor’s holding period. Explain.
b. The annualized after-tax rate of return to investing in the partnership form increases with the length of the partner’s holding period. Explain.
c. If a corporation paid out its entire after-tax profits as fully taxable dividends each year, shareholders would realize a lower before-tax rate of return than if the corporation retained the after-tax profits. Explain.
d. Because the corporate tax rate is below the personal tax rate, the corporate form is always preferred to the partnership form.
e. Because corporate income is subject to two levels of taxation, the partnership form is always preferred to the corporate form.

Answer 1

a). The annualization after the tax returns by the investment in corporate from increases with a period of holding. It is true.

The reason is that the profits of the corporate are being taxed at a percentage of 35% instead of being taxed at 40% in the hands of the individual.

b). The statement is false because the annualization return on the investment would be less as the income of the firm will be taxed at the hands of individual for a rate of a personal income that is 40%. So after the annualization return of tax would be less tha in case of the partnership firm.

c). The statement is true. This is because the after the tax profit is distributed to the share holders that are again subjected to the tax in hands of the individual tax payer at 205 to 23.8%. But when the retained earnings are not given off as the dividends, then the net value of the shares will increase there by increasing the capital gains on the sales of the shares which are taxed at lower rate of 20%.

d). This statement is false. It is not that always the corporate firms are preferred, and as the dividends are again subjected to the tax at some different rates that depends on the tax rate of the personal incomes.

e) The statement is true. The corporate income is subjected to any two taxation levels so that the partnership firm is always preferred to corporate firm.