THE IMPACT OF THE ABOLITION OF TAX CREDIT ON EX-DIVIDEND DAY ABNORMAL RETURNS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (UK) MARKET

The ex-dividend day returns are composed of the capital gains component and the dividends component. This study mainly examines the relationship between the 1997 abolition of the tax-credit and the ex-dividend day abnormal stock returns in the UK market (London Stock Exchange). The 1997 abolition ofthe tax credit on dividend effectively reduced the income of pension funds and other tax-exempt shareholders who had a strong preference for dividends. This study finds that the ex-day abnormal returns (AR) declined from +0.0580 percent during the pre-abolition periods to -0.1459 percent during the post-abolition periods. This decline is statistically significant with a t-value of 2.0431. From these results it would appear that the ex-dividend day AR changed following the 1997 abolition of tax credits on dividends. Moreover the comparison tests of ex-day drop-off ratios between pre-and post-abolition periods show that drop-offratios for all dividend yield groups increased significantly from 0.519 in the preabolition periods to 0.574 over the post-abolition periods with a t-value of 2.183. Thus, the decrease on ex-day AR was further supported by a significant increase in the average price-drop to dividend ratios. The decline in the ex-day AR for the post-abolition periods seems to be driven primarily by quintile 5 (the highest dividend yield quintile). Quintile 5 exhibits strong dividend preference and this preference is likely caused by the imputation system that provides a tax advantage to the tax exempt shareholders. This finding appears to suggest that the highest dividend yield securities are likely to be held by tax-exempt investors such as pension funds that were affected by the abolition of the tax credits on dividend.