Dividends and Taxation

The purpose of this paper is to examine current thinking and evidence on the extent to which taxation is, or should be, an influence upon dividend policy. To this end, the paper has been divided into two parts. The first reviews the range of normative stances and the empirical evidence in respect of each stance. Discussion mainly addresses large listed companies in the US and, to a lesser extent, the UK. The second part of the paper is based on more practical issues. This focuses attention on smaller, owner‐managed companies, for which there is less empirical evidence relating to dividend policy. This analysis of smaller companies is restricted to the UK taxation system only.