Background: In newspaper articles, we can nowadays read headlines as"Stop the robbing!"and"They pay extra tax through rent". A column in Göteborgsposten describes enormous amounts of money, pouring between municipal companies. Numerous of local newspapers have started to pay attention to their municipal companies and the transfer of profits from municipal housing enterprises and electric power companies. What are upsetting these journalists then? Both Hyresgästföreningen (The Swedish tenants’ association) and Boverket (The Swedish National Housing Board) indicate that the fiscal purpose of transactions within the group no longer is primary for municipalities. They allege that the transactions are improperly exploited by transferring inappropriate amounts of money from municipal housing enterprises. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to map transactions between municipal group companies and also evaluate if they are consistent with the accounting regulation in the domain. Delimitation: The case study will have a geographical delimitation by only including the group of Linköpings Stadshus. The study will only include the years during 1997-2003. The transactions that will be examined are group contributions, shareholders’ contribution and dividend. The case study will also process the interest expense of the parent company because of the promissory note loan that was raised from the municipality of Linköping in connection with the formation of the group. Realisation: In the form of a case study, the thesis was realised through the collection of annual reports, obtained from the companies concerned. These data was complemented through qualitative interviews with representatives from the parent company and the municipality. The complementation was made to increase the comprehension of the problems. Results: The municipality is primarily using competition and focus in result as important factors when trying to imitate private companies. This does not harmonize with the purpose of the municipal transactions. It is also clear that municipal groups may be composing strategies dealing with empty the subsidiary companies out on capital. This applies particularly to electric power companies. In the case study, compared to a payment of tax, Tekniska Verken has not recovered enough shareholders’ contribution. With that, these companies financial position is clearly deteriorating compared to if they would pay tax. Regulations of housing enterprises were not created until 1999. That means that violations of the regulations were not possible before that either. Obviously, the groups were using this opportunity, and the dividend that has been discussed in the case study, is a clear example of the municipality not giving priority to the clients of the housing enterprise. Though, it is important to point out the legality of a dividend of that kind.

Prior research on conservative accounting and bondholder-shareholder conflict show that firms with higher degree of conservatism experience less austere conflict and lower cost of debt. However, since the implementation of IFRS in 2005, conservatism has been widely reduced in favor of fair value principles. This study sets out to examine if accounting conservatism still mitigates the conflict and reduces cost of debt. We regress two measures of conservatism on three conflict proxies and debt cost, respectively, for firms on the Norwegian market. Our results support the conclusion that conservative accounting mitigates the bondholder-shareholder conflict even after the introduction of IFRS, but we find no significant evidence that bondholders reward high level of conservatism with lower cost of debt.

The aim of this study is to examine the dividend policy behavior of firms listed at Stockholm Stock Exchange from 2005-2011. We examine the behavior from a Market Cap (firm size) and industry classification (group characteristics) perspective due to the structure of Stockholm Stock Exchange, by using non-parametric methods and Lintner`s model. The conclusions are as follows: (i) Market Cap listing and industry classification matters for the propensity to pay dividends and we observe that firms in Mid Cap and Small Cap were more likely to pay dividends in 2011 than in 2005. (ii) Neither Market Cap listing nor industry classification affects the firms’ payout ratio. (iii) Market Cap listing affects the firms´ level of paid DPS (dividend per share) but not significantly when we compared firms in Large Cap to firms in Mid Cap. Industry classification affects the firms´ level of paid DPS. (iv) Current EPS (earnings per share) and past DPS are important factors for deciding current DPS when firms were classified into Market Caps, but not for all firms when they were classified into industries. (v) Firms follow regular but unstable dividend policies despite Market Cap listing. Firms in the Health Care industry follow irregular and unstable dividend policies while the firms in the other industries follow regular but unstable dividend policies.

This thesis investigates what effects control enhancing mechanisms that are associated with vote differentiation have on dividend payout policy among Swedish listed firms. The data collected for this study is for the period 2005-2007 and the sample consists of 109 companies where 61 of these have shares that are vote differentiated, and the remaining 48 companies have the one share –one vote structure. The variables in the regressions are dividend payout ratio, a dummy for vote differentiation, growth in earnings, size, Tobin’s Q and ownership structure. Three separate hypotheses are applied for reaching a scientific answer to the thesis question. The results indicate that dividend payout policy is significantly negatively affected by the presence of vote differentiation and that vote concentration among the five largest shareholders is generally higher in such firms. The results do also indicate that dividend payout is determined by firm size, growth and investment performance which are in line with earlier studies. From the results, parallels have been drawn between investment performance, ownership concentration, vote differentiation and dividend payout policy. Firms that have vote differentiated shares tend to overinvest instead of paying out dividends when this presumably would be a more appropriate decision considering the aspect of efficiency. As a final conclusion based on the findings, the thesis confirms the argument on that vote differentiating among shares should be reconsidered for better reforms.

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Uppsatsens syfte är att mot bakgrund av införandet av 53 kap. IL och den s.k. X och Y- domen, analysera när ett lån från ett utländskt holdingbolag, kan omklassificeras till utdelning genom en tillämpning av principen om rättshandlingars verkliga innebörd. EU-domstolens dom i X och Y-målet föranledde att reglerna i 53 kap. IL ändrades och gjorde det möjligt för svenska privatpersoner att överlåta aktier till underpris till egna bolag i utlandet utan några omedelbara beskattningskonsekvenser. De nya reglerna öppnade upp för en omfattande skatteplanering genom upplägg med utländska holdingbolag. Genom att låna medel från ett holdingbolag som etablerats i utlandet, har svenska privatpersoner kunnat kringgå låneförbudsreglerna i ABL och därmed undvika beskattning. Under 2009 ändrades reglerna för beskattning av förbjudna lån. De nya reglerna tillämpades från den 13 februari 2009 och innebär att lån från utländska juridiska personer numera ska beskattas. Skatteverket har dock fortsatt att angripa lånetransaktioner som har företagits före denna tidpunkt och hävdat att lånen egentligen utgör skattepliktig utdelning. Principen om rättshandlingars verkliga innebörd innebär att domstolarna kan omklassificera en felaktigt betecknad rättshandling och låta den verkliga innebörden ligga till grund för beskattningen. En omklassificering kan endast göras om en rättshandlings beteckning inte stämmer överens med den verkliga innebörden. Ett lån från ett utländskt holdingbolag borde därför kunna omklassificeras till utdelning endast om lånet kan an-ses utgöra förtäckt utdelning enligt ABL. En samlad bedömning måste göras av samtli-ga omständigheter i det enskilda fallet. Frågan har dock inte prövats i högre instans och rättsläget är fortfarande oklart. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyse when, in the light of the X and Y case and chapter 53 IL, a loan from a holding company could be classified as a dividend by applying the principle of substance over form. The ruling of the Court of Justice in the X and Y-case, led to a change of the rules in chapter 53 IL. The new rules made it possible for natural persons to transfer shares in companies at undervalue to foreign legal persons owned by them, without immediate taxation. The new rules resulted in wide tax planning with foreign holding companies. By taking a loan from a holding company established abroad, natural persons could circumvent the ban on credit rules in ABL, and thereby avoid taxation. In 2009 the tax rules concerning forbidden loans where changed. The new rules were applicable from the 13th of February 2009 and imply that loans taken from foreign legal persons should be taxed. However, the tax authorities continue to inspect transactions carried out before this date, claiming that the loans constitute taxable dividends. According to the principle of substance over form, courts are free to reclassify a legal act that is not labeled correctly. Thus, a legal act should be taxed due to its actual substance independent of what form or label it has. A reclassification can only be made when the label of the legal act does not correspond with its real meaning. Hence, a loan from a holding company should only be reclassified to a dividend, if the loan is considered to constitute such disguised dividend according to ABL. All facts need to be considered in the evaluation. The particular question has not been tried by a higher court and therefore the legal position is still unclear.

This study examines the relationship between cash flow rights and dividend payout policy of listed family firms in Taiwan, an economy characterized by a predominance of family-controlled firms. Dividend payout levels are important because they are crucial to governing the firm and managing its investments. The empirical results show that at a low level of controlling families¡¦ cash flow rights, the threat to lose control any time makes controlling families claim more in dividends. This yields a positive relationship between dividend payout and the cash flow rights of controlling families. Meanwhile, at a moderate level of controlling families¡¦ cash flow rights, the entrenchment effect creates a negative relationship. Finally, at the very highest level of controlling families¡¦ cash flow rights, excessive firm-specific risk again yields a positive relationship. This nonmonotonic relationship between controlling family cash flow rights and dividend payout also holds for financially mature firms that have high earned to contributed capital mix.

In this dissertation three different economic issues have been analyzed. The first issue is whether monetary policy rules can improve forecasting accuracy of inflation. The second is whether the preference of a central bank is symmetry or not. The last issue is whether the behavior of aggregate dividends is asymmetry. Each issue is considered in Chapter II, III and IV, respectively. The linkage between monetary policy rules and the prediction of inflation is explored in Chapter II. Our analysis finds that the prediction performance of the term structure model hinges on monetary policy rules, which involve the manipulation of the federal funds rate in response to the change in the price level. As the Fed's reaction to inflation becomes stronger, the predictive information contained in the term structure becomes weaker. Using the long-run Taylor rule, a new assessment of the prediction performance regarding future change in inflation is provided. The empirical results indicate that the long-run Taylor rule improves forecasting accuracy. In chapter III, the asymmetric preferences of the central bank of Korea are examined under New Keynesian sticky prices forward-looking economy framework. To this end, this chapter adopts the central bank's objective functional form as a linear-exponential function instead of the standard quadratic function. The monetary policy reaction function is derived and then asymmetric preference parameters are estimated during the inflation targeting period: 1998:9-2005:12. The empirical evidence supports that while the objective of output stability is symmetry, but the objective of price stability is not symmetry. Specifically, it appears that the central bank of Korea aggressively responds to positive inflation gaps compared to negative inflation gaps. Chapter IV examines the nonlinear dividend behavior of the aggregate stock market. We propose a nonlinear dividend model that assumes managers minimize the regime dependent adjustment costs associated with being away from their target dividend payout. By using the threshold vector error correction model, we find significant evidence of a threshold effect in aggregate dividends of S&P 500 Index in quarterly data when real stock prices are used for the target. We also find that when dividends are relatively higher than target, the adjustment cost of dividends is much smaller than that when they are lower.

To face the competition in the business environment, the company should continuously execute the capital investment to reinforce its competitive ability and to insure the endless business operation. Due to the capital investment involving huge money and long-term impact, the company should considerately and thoughtfully evaluate the financial feasibility of capital investment prior to making decision. Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is usually used as benchmark to evaluate the capital investment. WACC is made up of two key elements. The cost of equity, one of both, however, is difficult to measure. This article, taking C company as an example, is focused on how to apply 3 different models such as Dividend Growth Model (DGM), Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Free Cash Flow Model (FCF) to compute the cost of equity as well as on analyzing the outcomes of those models. The outcomes of DGM, CAPM and FCF are respectively 11.82%, 14.2%, and 10.50%, and the highest one is the outcome computed from CAPM. The outcomes computed from both DGM and FCF are narrowly different. As compared with actual rate of return of C company stock (11.6% adjusted from ex-cash dividend and ex-stock dividend), it is found that the outcome of DGM is the nearest to actual rate of return of C company stock, then FCF¡¦s is next one and CAPM¡¦s is most different. However, on condition that the company did not distribute cash dividend in its record or stayed on the abnormal growth stage, the DGM could not be applicable. Internal capital budgeting includes expansion of production expansion, replacement, improvement and innovation. Due to the fact that the attribute of this kind of capital investment is similar to that of the company¡¦s business of line, FCF would be the most appropriate model to estimate the cost of equity to determine the WACC for the purpose of internal capital budgeting evaluation.

From 2008, employee stock bonus must debt expense according to national law and policy. How to get balance between employees and shareholders without eroding benefits becomes the most difficult challenge to many enterprises. The employee stock bonus has been implemented in Taiwan for a long time. This system does play a significant role in high-tech industry and make a great contribution to Taiwan¡¦s economics. However, since a series of business scandals starting with Enron case in 2001, this unique system has been broadly discussed and caused serious debates. One of the most controversial arguments claims that employee stock bonus will weaken the stock price and hurt equity. The study is based on pooled time-series data during 1998-2007 from the IC industry corporations trading on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation and Over-The-Counter market. The purpose is to examine the impact of employee stock bonus on Taiwan stock market by analyzing the variation in Cumulative Average Abnormal Revenue (CAR). The empirical results are summarized as follows: 1.With the factor of employee stock bonus, the ex-dividend effects still existed in IC industry of Taiwan stock market. The negative CAR was particular in evidence on the three days prior to the ex-date. There were no obvious trends of ex-dividend effects during this decade. Both employee stock bonus and dividends were declined year by year which represented that corporation had adjusted their policy with a downward tendency. 2.Before the ex-date, the group of moderate employee stock bonus was beneficial to the CAR and created better performance of stock price with the least dilution effect. On the contrary, the group of low employee stock bonus came out the worst performance. After the ex-date, the group of high employee stock bonus exhibited the best ex-dividend effects and sustained the performance longer. But the group of low employee stock bonus still performed poorly with the most negative CAR. Base on above findings, employee stock bonus not really hurt the stock price but benefit equity if corporations use this system adequately. High employee stock bonuses maybe deliver a positive signal which implicates a bright future.