Tax-motivated Management of Return on Mutual Fund: Evidence from the Korean Market

摘要

Background: The study analyzes whether a fund manager considers a tax factor in managing his or her fund and whether the two incentives affect tax driven fund management. Materials and Methods: This study investigates whether a fund manager adjusts rates of return on funds managed near the enforcement or the sunset of the temporary non-taxation rule by analyzing the distribution of rates of return on the funds near 0. In order to do that, this study utilizes the methodology, which analyzes the distribution of earnings reported by corporations. Also the logistic regression analysis is undertaken to analyze the incentives of management of the returns on the funds. In addition, the robustness check is performed to support the statistical results by expansion of time window and removal of window dressing effect. Results: The discontinuous time-series distribution of rates of return on the funds is found near the enforcement and the sunset of the non-taxation rule for the period from 1 June, 2007 to 31 December, 2009. In addition, the logistic regression model finds that the compensation incentive and the reputation incentive of the fund manager have positive relations with the likelihood of the tax driven fund return management in the wake of the non-taxation rule. Conclusion: Such finding suggest that fund managers reported the performance of funds managed in their favor to increase the after-tax return when the non-taxation rule for overseas equity type fund was enforced or expired. Also the tax driven management of returns on the funds was affected by the compensation incentive and the reputation incentive of the fund manager. This is in line with discussions in the prior studies which demonstrate that a fund manager considers the tax-factor in managing his or her fund and that the compensation incentive and reputation incentive are main factors to affect the management of fund. These results provide policy implications that regulation systems are needed to provide an oversight over the fund?s performance in particular when the tax benefit rule for mutual funds is adopted.