摘要：This article shows that, contrary to the suggestion of some investment advisers, for an
individual Canadian investor subject to personal income taxation, the after-tax yield on a
discount bond is always higher than (or, at worst, equal to) the yield on a premium bond.
This follows because the tax rate on capital gains is lower than the tax rate on coupon
income in Canada. It is also shown that a decline in the capital gains tax rate raises the
after-tax yield on discount bonds but reduces the after-tax yield on premium bonds, and
may even cause the yield on premium bonds to become negative. Further, a cut in the tax
rate on interest income raises the after-tax yield on all bonds, but raises the yield on
premium bonds relative to discount bonds. While the lower after-tax yields on highercoupon
bonds might be expected to cause the pre-tax yields on these bonds to rise, no
evidence of such tax capitalization is found using a large data set of matched pairs of
government of Canada bonds for the period 1986-2006. The observed near-equality of
pre-tax yields since 1995 for bonds with different coupons implies that individuals in
Canada earn a significantly smaller after-tax yield from holding premium bonds than
discount bonds.
关键词：Taxation n investment income n bonds n capital gains n personal income taxes
n discount
