To summarize yesterday’s post:
firms with taxable income
Lowering the corporate tax rate in the US, while eliminating special interest tax preferences/exemptions, will benefit companies that have a high current tax rate. It will boost such a firm’s earnings by as much as 30%.
On the other hand, companies that have a low income tax rate will receive little or no benefit. Continuing to spend resources on what are in effect tax shelters for themselves will make no sense. To the extent that they are able to unwind these arrangements, they will benefit by doing so. If, however, they are recipients of special interest tax reduction deals, they may be absolute losers, as well as relative ones, if/when these special preferences are eliminated.
The greatest uncertainty here is whether industries that are recipients of large tax breaks, like real estate and oil and gas, will have their special interest preferences eliminated. This will be a key indicator of whether the “Drain the Swamp” rhetoric is more than an empty slogan.
firms with losses
This case is not as straightforward, thanks to wrinkles in the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles used by publicly traded companies in their reports to shareholders.
for the IRS
Let’s assume a firm makes a pre-tax loss in the current year.
The company has a limited ability to use this loss to offset taxes paid in past years ( it carries the loss back). It restates its past returns and gets a refund.
If it still has a portion of the loss that can’t be used in this way, it carries the loss forward to potentially use to shield income in future years from tax.
If the corporate income tax rate drops from 35% to 15%, the amount of pre-tax income that can be sheltered from tax by loss carryforwards remains the same. But the value of the carryforward is reduced by 60%.
for financial reporting
That’s tomorrow’s topic.