TY  - JOUR
AU  - Desai,Mihir A.
AU  - Foley,C. Fritz
AU  - Hines,James R.,Jr.
TI  - Trade Credit and Taxes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18107
PY  - 2012
Y2  - May 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18107
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18107.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Mihir A. Desai
Graduate School of Business Administration
Harvard University
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6693
Fax: 617/496-6592
E-Mail: mdesai@hbs.edu

C. Fritz Foley
Graduate School of Business Administration
Harvard University
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6375
Fax: 617/496-8443
E-Mail: ffoley@hbs.edu

James R. Hines
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
343 Lorch Hall
611 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1220
Tel: 734/764-2320
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: jrhines@umich.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2012-09-01
AB  - This paper analyzes the extent to which firms use trade credit to reallocate capital in response to tax incentives. Tax-induced differences in pretax returns encourage the use of trade credit to reallocate capital from firms facing low tax rates to those facing high tax rates. Evidence from the worldwide operations of U.S. multinational firms indicates that affiliates in low-tax jurisdictions use trade credit to lend, whereas those in high-tax jurisdictions use trade credit to borrow: ten percent lower local tax rates are associated with net trade credit positions that are 1.4 percent higher as a fraction of sales. The use of trade credit to get capital out of low-tax, low-return environments is also illustrated by reactions of U.S. firms to the temporary repatriation tax holiday in 2005, when affiliates with positive net trade credit positions were significantly more likely than others to repatriate dividends to parent companies in the United States.
ER  -