Number 5: Drivers of The Stock Market The S&P 500 index is a benchmark index for measuring the performance of the U.S. stock market. It is a diversified index that contains the stocks of 500 relatively large companies (large cap) in an array of industries. Stock prices reflect expectations of future corporate profitability – more […]
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Number 4: The Yet to be Paid Increasing Costs of the Federal Deficit and Debt The Federal Deficit The federal budget deficit refers to U.S. federal government spending exceeding government income. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Government spending totaled $4.1 trillion in 2018; government revenues were $3.3 trillion, contributing to a deficit of roughly […]
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Number 3: The Timing of Those Tax Cuts Part of what made the recent tax cuts unique is that they occurred in a growing economy with near historic lows in unemployment. Prior to 2018, recent tax cuts occurred when the economy was struggling and unemployment was relatively high. In the current economic recovery, the payroll […]
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Number 2: What’s Been Driving Economic Growth A country’s economic growth is measured by the change in real gross domestic product (GDP). GDP measures the value of goods and services by a country over a given timeframe (typically quarterly or annually). GDP includes four components: 1) Consumer spending, 2) Investment spending, 3) Government Expenditures, and […]
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Our last blog looked at how taxes changed in 2018, specifically the tax cuts for individuals and corporations. This blog will take a look at the economy – including how those tax cuts and other factors impacted the economy, and what is likely to impact the economy going forward. The blog is split into six […]
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The most significant changes from the 2018 tax bill under President Trump impacted corporations. The significant benefits to corporations included the following: a reduction in the statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, 2) capital spending (spending on property, plant, and equipment) could be immediately expensed rather than depreciated, and 3) the taxation of […]
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Beginning in 2018, tax law changed under President Trump, with the most significant changes and reductions occurring to corporate taxes. The new tax law keeps the seven tax brackets that existed under President Obama, with the bracket amounts adjusted slightly. However, the tax rates that apply to each tax bracket were generally reduced. This was […]
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How did income tax rates change under President Obama relative to President Bush? The answer is: not much, except for the tax rate that applied to the highest income bracket. The tax rates that were in effect under President Obama were generally derived from the “Bush Tax Cuts” that were implemented in 2003. Under President […]
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The federal income tax structure is a progressive tax structure. Theoretically, the more you make the more you pay. This structure has been a principle tenet of the federal income tax system, and remained in place under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. As demonstrated below, there are progressively higher tax rates that apply to increasingly […]
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This blog will take a look at everyone’s favorite subject – income taxes. Why? Well, five reasons: 1) taxes are important,2) taxes are complex3) a lot changed in 20184) changing taxes can have significant implications, not only on individuals and corporations, but also on government spending and how the government funds that spending5) changing taxes […]
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