This blog will take a look at everyone’s favorite subject – income taxes. Why? Well, five reasons:
1) taxes are important,
2) taxes are complex
3) a lot changed in 2018
4) changing taxes can have significant implications, not only on individuals and corporations, but also on government spending and how the government funds that spending
5) changing taxes affects current and future economic performance.
In this blog, we’ll try and summarize the basic principles of federal income taxes (which can be challenging in and of itself), and we’ll focus on what changed since the turn of century under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. Of course, any change in the tax code is a function of both the President and Congress, but tax changes usually reflect the President’s opinion on taxes. Our next blog will discuss why the changes occurred and discuss some of the consequences of those changes. That will also be challenging in and of itself. For now, to keep things (somewhat) simplified, we’ll just focus on how the system works and recent changes.
CBEI Blog Series: Income Taxes – Bush vs. Obama vs. Trump
Part 1: Intro
Part 2: Federal Individual Income Tax Overview, How it Works
Part 3: President Obama vs. President Bush
Part 4: President Trump vs. President Obama
Part 5: Corporate Incomes – Briefly but Importantly
Kevin Bahr is a professor emeritus of finance and chief analyst of the Center for Business and Economic Insight in the Sentry School of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.