trump tax plan

Apple Infusing $350 billion into US

Posted on by Helena

…Apple has announced that as a result o Trump’s new tax law they will repatriate $350 billion into the US economy over the next 5 years, $38 billion in repatriated taxes! In addition, their move will create 20,000 new jobs in the US!

Bada-BING!

Shouldn’t this be headline news?   Trump’s tax plan is already saving billions! But then Trump would have to be credited – and the media just can’t seem to work up the courage to say anything ‘nice’.

This is the first of many more to come given the most assertive tax reform in decades. This could be the beginning of a wave as others see the advantages. Those with the highest amount of cash overseas include; GE, Microsoft, Pfizer, Merck, Google Medtronic and Abbott Labs. It is estimated that $1.4 trillion in corporate cash is being held in various overseas accounts subject to a one time offer of 15.5% tax rate. That would amount to a cash infusion of $217 billion not including the associated jobs, and payroll tax revenue, not does it take into account the additional profits subject on an annual basis to the new corporate rate of 21%.

It is proof positive that Trump’s plan is a success and could have a ‘Yuge’ positive impact on the US economy while simultaneously negatively effecting those economies where the havens currently exist; Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and The Netherlands.

Another possible loophole that could trickle down and up again would include all the individuals, as in the Panama Paper Caper, who may decide to capitalize on the windfall and incorporate in order to bring their money back as well via the 15.5% rate.

Within this revolution of cash infusion there is a hidden danger. As the money flows and the economy is bumped, the Federal Reserve is likely to start increasing the interest rate which will ultimately put a bit of a squeeze on equity stocks given their profits have not kept pace with their market prices. However, in the short term, profits will feel the pace of business through lower tax rates and greater infusion of money in the economy.

A balance could shift toward larger cap stocks as they will see the greatest benefit and feel the least pain.

There is also the trigger of interest rates on federal debt which were cut in half during the Obama term. If those rates go back t normal, the government’s interest spending could easily double unless debt is paid down.   Trump’s fault? Hardly. Simply a mechanism he inherited.

But playing the swings could be a bit dicey if you don’t understand all the inherent dominoes being deployed.

In the meantime, the Liberal media will have to do some double talking, fast talking, hype in order to somehow convey how all this money infusion isn’t really a result of Trump’s Tax Reform, but something completely anti-Trump.

Add to the Liberal negative news that the economy is roaring, unemployment is low, black employment is at an all time high, and the Ozone hole is actually shrinking all by it’s lonely self, and the world seems to have gone from doomsday Revelation to a Halleluiah scenario.

Just sayin’…

Trump Tax Plan – Hoopdela

Posted on by Helena

Trump has released his outline for tax reform and the mainstream are going google nuts! They are absolutely convinced that this is a wealthy tax reform that will plunge revenues into the twalette!! The highest tax bracket of 40% will be reduced to 35% and this will decimate the Federal government pockets. OMGosh.

Really?

Because according to the IRS, in 2015 (latest year available), the average tax rate for the 1%ers was just barely over 27% although they still picked up about 38% of all income taxes. The top 50% of taxpayers had an average tax rate just under 15%. And the bottom 50% paid a meager 3.3% in taxes on average and only represented 2.78% share of all taxes collected.  Well how do ya like that!  This aligns rather well with Trump’s plan, unless you are an overpaid tax preparer, an IRS employee, or a Pundit.

One decrier of the plan is Bill Maher, a comedian with a degree in English and History. I suppose that qualifies him to evaluate and analyze finance? Another critic, Ryan Struyk of ABC quoted the ‘bipartisan’ Committee For Responsible Federal Budget.  

It’s current President, Maya MacGuiness, whose background bio includes such media notables as Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, Financial Times and LA Times – all bellwether diehard Liberal organizations, is predictable. In addition, she held a post at the Brookings Institute, another Liberal organization. Hard to classify as ‘nonpartisan’.

The Board is weighted heavily with democrats, including Leon Panetta, Charles Schultz, Robert Strauss, etc… And formerly associated with the New America Foundation, a Soros supported organization. They took a special interest in Obama and McCain in 2008… lauding their budget campaigns. In other words, it is hardly the most reliable in terms of ‘nonpartisanship’.

For the lower 50% tax filers, the greatest advantage is increasing the standard deduction which effectively makes the first $24000 of revenue nontaxable taking a hefty stresser off the table. Critics of the plan continue the same rhetoric as always without ever understanding the main punch – lower tax rates mean more income will flow back into the US instead of ending up in the Caymans, Bahamas, Cyprus and all the other tax havens that wealthy taxpayers enjoy – including Hollywood elitists.

Another ‘nonpartisan’ organization offering their opinion is the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center whose current President Mark Mazur was an Obama appointee as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. The previous president, Leonard Burman, worked in the Bill Clinton White House.  Funding comes from Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Gates Foundation…Sigh…Gee REALLY?  All quite Liberal.

I think a part of the failure of the analyses is that it comes from people making tons of money, they don’t understand the mentality of someone making just enough to pay the bills, and can’t predict that reaction. In contrast, failing to take into account the offshore money is very short-sighted. Failing to look at the sources of tax revenue historically, is also short-sighted.

Failing to check your SOURCES – is also pretty critical.

According to the Liberal MSM, The New York Times, The Cayman Islands hold $1.9 trillion in US dollars on deposit. The Swiss hold $3 trillion in Swiss francs. IBC’s and trusts account for trillions. In fact, it has been estimated that between a third and a half of all the wealth of the world’s high net worth individuals is sitting in offshore accounts. Why?

Taxes.  And its not coming back unless there is an incentive.  Pretty basic economics.

The other half of Trump’s tax plan affects businesses by cutting the rate from a top tier of 39.6% to just 15%. Ultimately this will encourage spending, additional hiring, and raises. It won’t happen overnight. But this effect could be the biggest equalizer encouragement. The effect of lowering tax rates has been proven over and over again as an economic stimulus.

In this instance it has the added bonus of encouraging large corporations who have offshored their headquarters to tax haven countries, to relocate back to the US.  Despite all the analyses, this one equalizer has not been utilized in making predictions.  Why?  Because it hasn’t happened.  Corporations keep moving away – they don’t come back unless they have that diehard gravity – incentive!

Again, this will take time to implement in terms of feeding the economy, but the measures could sharpen the revenue stream significantly.

While some Republicans eagerly proffer negative reviews claiming the tax reform will not ‘blow holes in the deficit’, they seem to miss the point that – THAT is NOT the Point. It is as though the search for a negative no matter how forlorn, far-fetched, ambiguous, destructive, or just plain ridiculous, is the only agenda.

It’s an ego war.  ‘Well I didn’t think of it, so therefore it probably won’t work…’

Even more telling:   How can these in-depth, analysis Committees and policy groups and pundits release their ‘in-depth analysis and criticism’ one day after the outline is made public?   Because in the real world, such analyses typically take months, if not years, in government circles. They require complete knowledge of the entire plan, not just an outline, as Trump provided. They require multiple experts plugging in numbers, ratifying data, creating algorithms, and then fixing all the inevitable mistakes they have made, resubmitting left out data, and creating new templates.

But then it wouldn’t make for good Entertainment and media mania…

Trump Trumps the Tax Game – Ex-Patriots

Posted on by Helena

Taxes, we hate them, they are annoying, they are riddled with so much garbage the tax code now has over 74,600 pages of rules. No accountant can possibly know them all. Few individuals can correctly do their own tax return. We buy software… we hire H&R Block, or we hire high end accountants. The end result, we pay money to the IRS, money to an accountant, and money for Social Security and Medicare.

And then there are those who don’t – pay money that is, and therein lies the true fraud within the system.

While politicians banter about changing the tax rates, having ‘fewer tax rates’, and cutting corporate tax rates, the biggest tax losses were addressed by Trump – overseas accounts, international deferment of taxes, and the carried interest break for fund managers. Bada-Boom!

It’s well known at the corporate level who plays and who pays. A board game of engineering feats, it can be as simple as setting up a local office in a country that has little to no tax, such as; Morocco, Bermuda, Ireland, and even the UK and Canada have joined the pool. Some argue that the ‘effective rate’ in the US is lower because of deductions, but this isn’t the entire story. I remember the story (before online filing) of a corporation filling three UPS trucks with it’s tax return. Many corporations hire a team of accountants just to prepare their tax returns which can take years to do.

Between 2011 and 2014 22 companies left the US for a brighter tax future, including Burger King, Eaton PLC, Perrigo, Elan, and Vantage Energy, joining the 25 other companies that had already exited in the last decade. Of 34 countries in the OECD, the US ranks number one highest in corporate tax rates. The argument that the US effective rate is less seems to be lost on the hundreds of corporations that have exited. Insurance companies notoriously have run to Bermuda in the last decade as have a number of their highest paid executives.

How much revenue is lost? Well it depends on who is doing the counting because the figures range from about $40 billion to $150 billion. It’s an accounting thing…  Currently, individual income taxes comprise 37% of the total revenue collected by the government, corporate taxes only 9%. Total federal revenue for 2015 is estimated to be $3.18 trillion. Corporate revenue generated would then be about $286 billion and individual revenue would be $1.176 trillion. If lost revenue to ex-patriot corporations brought in additional sums of $150 billion, this would increase the bankroll by 52%. But is that enough?

Trump would offset the revenue by imposing a one time 10% penalty on all cash held overseas, estimated to be $2.1 trillion. That would amount to an additional $210 billion. But how much would be lost in individual revenue? Not an easy answer. You see, modifying deductions and lowering gaps will encourage ex-patriot individuals back to US shores which could easily offset any reductions of revenue by the little guys. It really is a win-win situation that would have imploding positive effects on the US economy.

The Economic Policy Institute argues that lowering taxes is all poppy-cock, a worthless endeavor that will do absolutely nothing but cost America healthcare and education. Who is the EPI? A very leftist organization supported by labor unions and ta-da – George Soros. No agenda there.

Seems to me, at 74,600 pages, it would be a lot easier to scrap the entire code and start over – fresh, with one covenant, you have to make the entire individual code fit in five pages, and the corporate code fit in seven pages. KISS. Of course, there will be naysayers, perhaps the 1000+ tax team at GE that effectively reduced GE’s taxes to – zero!

What we do know is that doing nothing but expanding the already belligerent tax code will create a ruinous environment as more and more individuals and companies continue their exodus. And right now, Trump’s tax plan would seem to address the larger picture better than Rubio and Bush, and certainly puts Hillary to shame.

Hillary’s 2014 tax return showed deductions for travel (her famous hallmark) at roughly $1.5 million. And on gross income of over $30 million, charitable donations were a paltry $22,700 – not including self donations to their Foundation of Grease – $3 million. And we know that this $3 million personal deduction was spent for more travel. In 2013, travel expenses were an exorbitant $2,220,000, foreign source income (from India) excluded was $7.5 million, $38,000 went to charity and again $3 million to their self Foundation.

In addition, upwards of $26 million in revenue was diverted to the Clinton Foundation and not included in their personal income tax return – and thus non-taxable. And despite the fact that they list themselves as a $3 million annual donor to their corporation on their personal return, they don’t show up on the Foundation Donor list.  Huh?

So yes, our tax system is ripe with flaws. And yes, we need a major overhaul and have for years! And yes, addressing the entire corruption means pushing back against some surly allowances and will make some powerful people quite unhappy. Because, the kicker is not about fudging the tax brackets, that’s just pushing papers around a desk, the kicker is getting back the income, both corporate and individual, that could be taxed here and the only candidate addressing this – Trump.