Making the Most of Corporate Tax Reform

shutterstock_612496793

 

Although nothing major has happened yet, rest assured that corporate tax reform is on the way. The Trump administration has made big promises and at some point they are coming. So far, the president has proposed reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, while republican leaders in Congress have proposed a slightly more modest reduction to 20 percent.

Either way, the cut would represent a significant reduction form the current rate of 35 percent and corporations would see a huge boost. For example, if the effective tax rate dropped to 8.4 percent, then S&P companies would see the amount of pretax income they keep jump to about 85 percent from the current amount of about 76 percent.

The president has also proposed a repatriation rate of only 10 percent. In other words all the corporate income that companies are currently holding overseas in order to avoid the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate would only be charged a 10 percent rate if it were brought home to the U.S. There could also be a removal of the interest-deductibility, which could actually hurt earnings, but the tax breaks would far outweigh the losses.

Therefore, if you add it all up you get a lower corporate tax rate that would boost earnings by about 11 percent combined with a repatriation rate that would boost earnings another 2 percent. Removing the interest-deductibility would lower earnings by 2 percent, therefore leaving a net boost of 11 percent to S&P 500 earnings.

Posted in

So Just How Did Those Scammers Break Into the IRS Website?

  In early June, the IRS announced to the public that it had allowed thieves to steal the private information of thousands of taxpayers. According to those reports, the thieves accessed the information through the IRS’s online “Get Transcript” website and then used it to file fraudulent tax returns to the tune of about $50…

FBAR Penalties Could Be Lessened Under New IRS Guidelines

According to the IRS, “if you have a financial interest in or signature authority over a foreign financial account, including a bank account, brokerage account, mutual fund, trust, or other type of foreign financial account, exceeding certain thresholds, the Bank Secrecy Act may require you to report the account yearly to the Department of Treasury…

House Pushes Through Internet Tax Ban Bill but Will Senate Agree?

Everyone loves the Internet and most people couldn’t live without it. There are a lot of great things about the Internet; with one of those things being that fact that there are no state and local taxes to use it. Over the years, they have been many arguments back and forth as to whether or…

Which Is Higher, Your Food Bill or Your Tax Bill?

How high is your tax bill? Would you say you spend more on taxes than you do on food? What about clothing and shelter; do you spend more on them than you do on your taxes? The answer might surprise you. That’s because in actuality you probably spend more on your taxes every year than…