The Value of the Tax Deferral Option

This study explores the value of the tax deferral option. By examining ex-day stock-price-change ratios for taxable stock dividends in Taiwan, we find that the tax deferral option is valuable to investors. For a $1 taxable stock dividend, the tax deferral option produces 33.9¢ in tax savings, which suggests a tax deferral parameter of 11.3%. We also find that stocks with the tax deferral option have higher trading volumes around ex-days than those without this option, and that higher investor-level tax rates lead to higher value of the tax deferral option. We contribute to the literature by cleanly determining the value of the tax deferral option; our result is not confounded by the restart option.