Investment taxes have a substantial impact on the long-term performance of taxable mutual
fund investors. U.S. mutual funds are required to distribute their dividend income and their
realized capital gains to their shareholders at an annual frequency. Taxable mutual fund
investors need to pay taxes on these mutual fund distributions even if they do not liquidate
their mutual fund positions and continue to hold the funds for the long-term. Mutual funds
can reduce the tax burdens of their shareholders by avoiding securities that are heavily taxed
and by avoiding realizing capital gains that trigger higher tax burdens to the funds’ investors.
Such tax avoidance strategies, however, constrain the investment choices of the mutual funds
and might reduce their before-tax performance. Our paper empirically investigates the costs
and benefits of tax-efficient asset management based on U.S. equity mutual funds.