Share prices and pension funding: An empirical test of the joint effect of pension insurance and the pension tax shield

This article examines the joint significance of the tax benefits of pension funding and the value of government sponsored pension insurance in determining the efficacy of corporate pension funding. When the pension tax shield benefits are dominant, additional funding may enhance shareholder wealth. However, additional funding is observed to have negative effects on equity prices when the value of pension insurance is dominant relative to the value of the pension tax shield. When neither the tax or insurance effects are dominant, marginal adjustments in pension funding apparently will not alter corporate share prices.     

高储蓄率下养老金与个税缴纳激励联动的应用探索

中国基本养老保险存在的主要问题是基金缺口过大,个人账户"空账"问题突出.将养老金与个税缴纳激励联动可以让积极缴纳税收者、税收贡献大者获得更多的社会保障福利支持,中国养老金制度不健全是高储蓄率现状的主要原因之一,而养老金部分积累制在中国应用的主要障碍是来源不足;国际上在解决该问题上所提出的通过个税减免或优惠来激励个人缴纳养老金的方案,在中国有一定的借鉴意史,但要结合中国国情,从而提出养老金制度建设和税收激励联动体系设计的新思路.     

现收现付制与基金制的养老保险制度成本比较——基于养老保险收支平衡数理模型

养老保险的制度成本是指提供一定的养老金给付所需要的缴费和管理费用。若不考虑管理费用,养老保险的制度成本就是缴费水平。本文不考虑养老保险的管理费用,运用养老保险收支平衡数理模型,来比较分析现收现付制与基金制的养老保险制度成本。     

日本养老保险的税收政策及启示

目前,我国的养老保险制度存在一定的缺陷:基本养老保险覆盖面窄,替代率过高;企业年金和个人储蓄性养老保险发展缓慢。本文介绍了日本运用税收政策促进养老保险制度发展的做法,并从中得出了一些可供我国借鉴的经验:基本养老保险税收政策暂不宜进行调整;应尽快制定企业年金的相关税收政策;对个人储蓄性养老保险进行税收扶持。     

养老金计划与个人所得税政策

不同税制模式和个人所得税征税方式对养老金计划的影响不同,而养老金计划的个人所得税政策如何定位又主要取决于公共政策对储蓄以及不同储蓄形式的态度。比较国际实践,从税制模式、储蓄传统和长期资产管理来看,我国公共政策不需要鼓励养老金储蓄,但从金融体系的稳定和长远发展来看,又需要对养老金储蓄形式给予一定的鼓励。因此,我国个人所得税政策应该对其给予适当税收激励,但不需要很大力度。考虑到我国分类征收的个人所得税制,本文认为,我国个人所得税对养老金计划应该采取TEE模式(养老金缴款不允许税前扣除、对未支付的资本收益或资本利得不征税、对领取的全部养老金收入不征税)。     

Dividends and taxes

We present sufficient conditions for taxable investors to be indifferent to dividends despite tax differentials in favor of capital gains (Strong Invariance Proposition). The conditions include two ‘seemingly unrelated’ provisions of the Internal Revenue Code: (1) the limitation of interest deductions to investment income received and (2) the tax-free accumulation of wealth at the before-tax interest rate on investments in life insurance. Although we use insurance for simplicity in the proof, many tax-equivalent investment vehicles now exist, notably pension funds. Our analysis suggests that the personal income tax is approaching a consumption tax with further drift likely.     

Are Farmers’ Behaviors Rational When They Pay Less for Social Endowment Insurance? Evidence from Chinese Rural Survey Data

In recent years, farmers have had high participation rate in the rural social endowment insurance in China, for which personal contribution and government subsidy are the main funding source. There have been increasingly more farmers participating into the program. However, their enthusiasm for high premium payment was rather low as most of them selected the minimum premium for insurance. In this article, the discounted utility theory from behavioral economics was adopted to analyze insurance selection behaviors of farmers; in addition, a discounted incremental utility model with a hyperbolic discounting function was also further constructed to describe their insurance decision-making processes. Based on the investigation of time preferences of farmers, their insurance participation behaviors of diverse natures were simulated. The corresponding results indicated that active insurance participation and low insurance premium payment were rational choices for most farmers; in comparison, for the elders with higher income, different choices can be made. Therefore, policy makers could formulate differentiated subsidy policies directing at farmers from different groups, so as to stimulate their enthusiasm for premium payment.     

中国保险业税收的制度、效应及完善机制探析

保险是现代经济的核心组成部分和经济发展的促进因素之一.当前,中国保险业的税收负担偏重,而各种税收影响保险需求方的功能较弱.实证分析表明,保险公司的实际税率对其盈利水平具有显著负效应,税收可以通过影响保险消费者的收入、保险价格进而影响保险需求.基于减轻保险业税收负担、刺激保险供求的基本原则,把结构性减税和整体性减税结合起...     

税务机关征收养老保险费对征缴率的影响研究

基于养老保险2002—2018年省级面板数据,运用系统GMM估计方法研究社保费征收模式对征缴率的影响。研究发现：社保全征的征缴率高于税务全征,但低于税务代征,后者无统计意义。进一步的机制和异质性检验结果表明：税务全征可能增加企业研发投入或减少雇佣人数,对实际征缴收入产生负面影响;对于系统老龄化程度低于30%,或征缴率高于60%,或参保率高于69.107%的样本,税务全征使征缴率下降10.8～16.2个百分点。可见,税务代征模式更有助于社保体系的可持续发展。     

Government pension policy and the cost of labor and capital

This article examines how the pension insurance provided by the PBGC and the tax treatment of pension plans affect the cost of labor and capital. Two important aspects of the insurance program are (1) the premium schedule and (2) an employer's liability for unfunded pension benefits (the deductible). These two aspects interact to increase the cost of capital relative to labor, especially for firms with underfunded plans.     

Corporate taxes and defined benefit pension plans

The Tepper–Black arguments for tax-arbitrage opportunities from overfunding pension plans are critically examined and modifications proposed. Tax status, a function of current marginal tax rates and expected future taxable income, is predicted to determine funding policy. Tests of this modified tax benefits view suggest that 1) tax status declines are associated with pension contribution reductions, 2) reductions in contributions are related to previous excess contributions as well as non-pension tax shield increases causing the decline in tax status, and 3) cross-sectionally, tax status is related to fund levels, choice of actuarial variables, and the use of defined benefit plans.     

On the construction of marginal federal personal and social security tax rates in the U.S

In this article, I correct and extend my earlier series on marginal federal personal income tax rates. I also construct a measure of the marginal Social Security tax rate and add this to the income tax rate to obtain a measure of the effective marginal tax rate on income due to federal taxes. Finally, I compare my series on marginal income tax rates and its method of construction with those of Barro and Sahasakul.     

论我国养老保险逃费的危害、原因和治理

养老保险基金主要由劳动者和企事业单位缴费形成,它是养老保险制度赖以建立的基础。养老保险逃费对这一基础起着极大的破坏作用。调查研究结果表明,我国的养老保险逃费问题比较突出,相当一部分应缴费单位和个人都存在逃费现象,逃费形式花样百出,它直接影响养老保险制度的正常运行和发展。逃费是经济发展水平和劳动者的收入状况、养老保险主体行为和养老保险制度本身多种因素共同作用的结果。克服养老保险逃费需要从多方面着手:努力发展经济,不断提高劳动者收入;改革养老保险管理制度;充分调动企业参加养老保险的积极性;提高劳动者参加养老保险的积极性;强化各级政府的责任;加强养老保险管理部门的责任。     

基于目标替代率的税延型商业养老保险扣除限额优化研究

我国养老保障体系三支柱发展严重失衡,为了缓解基本养老保险的压力,提升养老保险替代率,商业养老保险的发展迫在眉睫,税收递延型商业养老保险也开始试点。在2018年个税改革后,目前税收递延型商业养老保险推行办法下,中低收入群体无法享受实际税收优惠,高收入群体可享受的税收优惠有限且过低。本文以替代率为基准,根据精算平衡原理构建模型,对扣除限额进行优化研究,试图测算出与新个税办法匹配且有利于多层次收入水平的消费个体享受实际税优的扣除限额。同时,本文还对不同扣除限额下开始购买保险年龄、个税起征点、个人收益率及初始收入水平这四个参数变化对实际税优额的影响做了分析,得出所测算出的扣除限额的确较现行扣除限额更为合理,并提出了相关对策建议。     

The Effect of Taxes on Corporate Financing Decisions: Evidence from a Panel of Italian Firms

This paper provides additional evidence on the relationship between corporate taxes and debt using panel data on Italian companies. The panel covers 1054 companies for the years 1982–1994.The paper follows the Graham-Shevlin methodology for calculating company specific marginal tax rates (MTR) relying on the non-linearity of corporate tax schedules resulting from company losses and the ensuing tax provisions (carry-forward and backward rules). In the period covered by the panel there were in Italy two taxes on corporate income (IRPEG and ILOR), with different loss carry-forward rules, whose statutory tax rates and tax bases changed several times. For these reasons the simulated MTRs display both cross-sectional and time-series variation.The paper tests whether taxes encourage the use of debt by analysing incremental financing decisions. In order to cope with the endogeneity of the MTR the paper considers two different specifications. The first uses the lagged value of the simulated MTR. The second employs the estimate of before-financing MTR proposed by Graham et al. (1998). Significant cross-sectional tax effects are identified under both specifications whereas time-series variation cannot be identified if due account is taken of firm-fixed tax effects.The paper also investigates whether personal taxes affect corporate financing decisions. The MTR may either overstate or understate the fiscal benefit of debt financing according to whether, at the personal level, interest income is taxed at a rate that is higher or lower than the tax rate on returns from common stocks. Differences in the dividend-payout ratio across companies and several reforms in interest, dividend and capital gains taxation provide sufficient cross-section and time-series variations to identify the effect of personal taxes on debt usage.     

企业年金缩小企业与机关事业单位职工养老金差距的政策仿真研究——工资异质性的视角

引入工资差异对企业职工企业年金缴费意愿的影响,采用仿真方法测量企业年金对企业与机关事业单位职工养老金差距的影响。首先,根据我国养老制度安排,构建了企业年金基金、基本养老金、退休金预测模型和养老金差距测量指标;其次,选取工资水平从社平工资的0．5倍～5．0倍的14类代表性职工,模拟了基准情境和提高企业年金税收优惠的四种情境——提高雇主缴费的企业所得税免税上限、降低雇主缴费计入个人账户部分的个人所得税税率、降低领取阶段的个人所得税税率、免征个人缴费的个人所得税,并进行了敏感性分析。仿真结果表明,企业年金及其税收优惠政策能够有效缩小企业与机关事业单位职工养老金差距,提高雇主缴费的企业所得税免税上限的作用最显著。企业年金投资收益率提高、企业年金管理费率降低、余寿减少、社平工资增长率提高和工作年限增加都会放大这种作用,反之亦然。工资越高企业职工从企业年金中获益越大,可能扩大企业职工内部养老金差距。     

The Elasticity of Taxable Income in New Zealand*

This paper reports estimates of the elasticity of taxable income with respect to the net‐of‐tax rate for New Zealand taxpayers. The relative stability of the New Zealand personal income tax system, in terms of marginal rates, thresholds and the tax base, provides helpful conditions for deriving these estimates. The elasticity of taxable income was estimated to be substantially higher for the highest income groups. Changes in the timing of income flows for the higher income recipients were found to be an important response to the announcement of a new higher rate bracket. The marginal welfare costs of personal income taxation were consistent across years, being relatively small for all but the higher tax brackets. For the top marginal rate bracket of 39 per cent, the welfare cost of raising an extra dollar of tax revenue was estimated to be well in excess of a dollar. Implications of the findings are that: disincentive effects of high top marginal rates can be substantial even when labour supply responses are small; the welfare costs of increases in top marginal tax rates can be high; and announcement effects of tax policy changes can lead to considerable income shifting between time periods.     

The tax benefit of income smoothing

A worker can reduce tax liability by contributing to a private pension plan when marginal tax rates are high and withdraw pension benefits when marginal tax rates are low. We quantify the tax benefit of income smoothing through the private retirement system and find that it is negligible. This conclusion is important to households, investment advisers, tax policymakers, and scholars engaged in financial retirement planning.     

中国企业养老保险缴费压力及其影响因素研究——基于不同类型企业的比较分析

落实2015年中央经济工作会议提出的降低企业养老保险费率的要求,需要根据不同企业的具体情况制定差异化的政策,这需要深入分析养老保险缴费对不同企业的具体影响。文章利用"中国社会养老保险缴费减免补偿研究"调查数据,运用交叉分析和多元Logistic模型,分析了中国企业养老保险缴费压力的影响因素,并对不同类型企业的情况进行了比较分析。结果表明,企业养老保险缴费率较高,占总成本的比重较大,由于用工人数增加和物价水平上涨双重因素的作用,使得劳动密集型企业面临的养老保险压力最大。养老保险缴费率、养老保险缴费占总成本的比重、用工人数、企业收益、是否享受养老保险缴费优惠等因素是造成企业养老保险缴费压力的主要原因。降低企业养老保险缴费压力需要进一步降低企业养老保险费率,使企业养老保险费占企业总成本的比重降低,促进社会经济的区域协调发展,降低劳动密集型企业的养老保险缴费压力,实行技术更新和设备升级,对于一些新型企业或暂时困难企业,实施企业养老保险费减免或延迟缴费政策。     

The Effect of Regulations on Pension Risk Shifting: Evidence from the US and Europe

This paper provides evidence that pension regulations can incentivize or curb risk shifting in the investment of defined benefit plan assets. We document that in the US, where the pension insurance premium charged by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is largely flat, financially distressed firms with severely underfunded plans shift pension investment risk. We further find that risk shifting is mitigated in the UK after the implementation of risk‐adjusted pension insurance premiums, and in the Netherlands where full pension funding is mandatory. Overall the results in this paper lend support to the view that structural flaws in the US statutory pension insurance scheme incentivize high‐risk sponsors to gamble their pension assets when distress terminations of their plans become foreseeable.