The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates

axable investors who are considering purchasing mutual fund shares around the dates when a mutual fund is planning a taxable distribution can reduce the present discounted value of their tax liability by delaying their purchase until after the distribution date. Non-taxable shareholders, such as tho...

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Main Authors: Johnson, Woodrow T., Poterba, James Michael
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Elsevier 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114256
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3532-0998
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author Johnson, Woodrow T.
Poterba, James Michael
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Johnson, Woodrow T.
Poterba, James Michael
author_sort Johnson, Woodrow T.
collection MIT
description axable investors who are considering purchasing mutual fund shares around the dates when a mutual fund is planning a taxable distribution can reduce the present discounted value of their tax liability by delaying their purchase until after the distribution date. Non-taxable shareholders, such as those who invest through IRAs and other tax-deferred accounts, face no such incentive for delaying a purchase of the fund. This paper compares daily shareholder transactions by taxable and non-taxable investors in the mutual funds of a single no-load fund complex around distribution dates. Gross inflows to taxable accounts are significantly lower in the weeks preceding distribution dates than in the weeks following them, but gross inflows to tax-deferred accounts do not change around these dates. This finding suggests that some taxable shareholders time their purchase of mutual fund shares to avoid the tax acceleration associated with distributions. Taxable shareholders who purchase shares just before distribution dates also have shorter holding periods, on average, than those who buy just after a distribution. Since the cost of the distribution-related tax acceleration for pre-distribution buyers is related to the expected holding period of the shares, this finding provides some evidence of clientele formation among the buyers of mutual fund shares. Keywords: Mutual funds; After-tax returns; Capital gains taxation; Taxable distributions
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spelling mit-1721.1/1142562019-05-17T07:32:14Z The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates Johnson, Woodrow T. Poterba, James Michael Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Poterba, James Poterba, James Michael axable investors who are considering purchasing mutual fund shares around the dates when a mutual fund is planning a taxable distribution can reduce the present discounted value of their tax liability by delaying their purchase until after the distribution date. Non-taxable shareholders, such as those who invest through IRAs and other tax-deferred accounts, face no such incentive for delaying a purchase of the fund. This paper compares daily shareholder transactions by taxable and non-taxable investors in the mutual funds of a single no-load fund complex around distribution dates. Gross inflows to taxable accounts are significantly lower in the weeks preceding distribution dates than in the weeks following them, but gross inflows to tax-deferred accounts do not change around these dates. This finding suggests that some taxable shareholders time their purchase of mutual fund shares to avoid the tax acceleration associated with distributions. Taxable shareholders who purchase shares just before distribution dates also have shorter holding periods, on average, than those who buy just after a distribution. Since the cost of the distribution-related tax acceleration for pre-distribution buyers is related to the expected holding period of the shares, this finding provides some evidence of clientele formation among the buyers of mutual fund shares. Keywords: Mutual funds; After-tax returns; Capital gains taxation; Taxable distributions 2018-03-21T19:33:30Z 2018-03-21T19:33:30Z 2015-11 2015-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1090-9443 1090-9451 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114256 Johnson, Woodrow T., and James M. Poterba. “The Effect of Taxes on Shareholder Inflows Around Mutual Fund Distribution Dates.” Research in Economics 70, 1 (March 2016): 7–19 © 2015 University of Venice PUBLISHER_CC https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3532-0998 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rie.2015.10.004 Research in Economics Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/octet-stream Elsevier Prof. Poterba
spellingShingle Johnson, Woodrow T.
Poterba, James Michael
The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
title The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
title_full The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
title_fullStr The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
title_full_unstemmed The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
title_short The effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
title_sort effect of taxes on shareholder inflows around mutual fund distribution dates
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114256
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3532-0998
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