.....debt and equity has a number of different implications, including some significant tax implications. Debt is repaid from earnings prior to taxation, where equity payouts typically occur on an after-tax basis. This is because debt repayments take priority over the payment of dividends or even to stock buybacks or retained earnings. Debt capital is thus repaid before the company is taxed -- debt lowers taxable income. Thus, debt will also lower the total tax burden that the company faces (FindLaw, 2017).If the company opts for equity financing, it will face a higher tax burden. The taxable income will be higher, which means that the total tax payable will also be higher. Then, the equity that flows to shareholders will do so on an after-tax basis. The shareholders of course will also pay tax on whatever flows they receive. For the corporation, even though it doesn't pay that tax, it is still affected by it, because it means that equity capital has a higher cost of capital than debt. When weighing capital structure decisions, cost of debt is one of the considerations that senior management needs to take into account, because a higher cost...
This makes sense for a company on a positive growth trajectory, but has its own challenges should the company no longer be growing.Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
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