An Empirical Study on the Influence of Non-Debt Tax Shield on the Choice of Corporate Debt Levels----Based On the Tax Preference Policy
Ruibing Gao

Abstract
This paper exploits the data from A- share listed corporations of China from 2008 to 2013, using the ratio of the sum of fixed assets depreciation and intangible assets amortization and R&D expenses and R&D expenses plus deduction to total assets as substitute variables of NDTS, attempts to check the impact of the non- debt tax shield on the choice of corporate debt levels, and further analyzes whether the effect of the non-debt tax shields is different in different nature of enterprise ownership or different industries. This study finds a negative and significant relationship between NDTS and corporate debt levels, which is consistent with the NDTS’s effect theory of capital structure. In addition, we further find that the effect of the non-debt tax shields has ownership nature and industry characteristics.

Full Text: PDF