Posted on 01/05/2018 9:04:23 AM PST by gubamyster
Companies have already responded to the tax reform Opens a New Window. package, announcing plans to pass along some of the savings to their employees. AT&T (T) said it would give $1,000 bonuses even before the tax plan was signed into law and other companies such as Comcast (CMCSA), U.S. Bank and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) have followed suit. Wells Fargo (WFC) said it will raise the minimum wage at the company to $15 an hour.
White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn weighed in on corporate America’s response to the tax package telling FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.,” “Look at what’s happened since we announced tax reform. In just two weeks we’ve had well over 100 companies announce year-end bonuses, 401(K) contributions or increased minimum wages for about a million workers in the United States.”
According to Cohn, even those at the White House were surprised by the response.
“So, a million workers in the last week of 2017 got a surprise just because of the tax reform package and that is something that we didn’t even expect to see.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Dems mad. Anything that makes life better makes dems mad. Dems need to all go to Venezuela and stay.
When you look back over the years both parties have tried to give back rebates in the $40 (Obama) to $200 (Bush II) range and frankly got very little bang for the buck. The GOP tax cut of 2017 has already been a smashing political success that will severely impact the left and the lies from them and their butt brothers in the media.
A key difference there, is that the $40 & $200 were tax rebates. These companies are actually giving bonuses of their own profits, inspired by the tax cuts.
In this holy time, the moral obscenity and unrepentant greed of the GOP tax scam stands out even more clearly...This GOP tax scam is simply theft, monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it. the GOP tax scam is not a vote for an investment in growth or jobs. It is a vote to install a permanent plutocracy in our nation. They’ll be cheering that later. It does violence to the vision of our Founders. It disrespects the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, who are a large part of our middle class and to whom we owe a future worthy of their sacrifice. And it betrays the future and betrays the aspirations of our children. It demands, it morally demands a no vote from every member of this house of the people.
The Dems are scared to death everybody is going to really LIKE paying lower taxes and this cripples the great progressive project. The only problem is we are going to have another eight years of trillion dollar deficits because neither R nor D and stop spending. It’s the most potent drug in every capital city and capitol building in the country.
Ping.
What’s weird is, I got paid this last week and, even though my understanding is that no new withholding charts were in place for federal taxes, I was subject to higher federal and state tax withholding than I had been two weeks ago at the end of 2017. My pay didn’t change. I wonder why my withholding went up, when, by all calculations I’ve seen, it should have gone down. Gonna have to call my payroll folks to find out why.
I think the new payroll whithholding charts should be in effect the first week of February.
Republican need to go much further if they want REAL “reform” . Make dividends tax deductible & have a tax CREDIT for employers to give money to employees for profit sharing & HSA deductibles........to incentivize reducing corporate tax burden by paying dividends & especially for having employees receive more from their hard work. This way, business can investigate in machinery, equipment & technology to increase productivity while also making sure employees get a fair share & shareholders also get a fair share of splitting profits. It’s a way of getting rid of the corporate income tax without the political risk of doing so. And helping the employer mandate on health care work.
Payroll tax is a regressive, destructive, first dollar tax on work, jobs, wages & raises. Economists like it, though.....but small business & workers hate it.......because taxing business payrolls is just plain mean. ...& is just as bad as taxing middle class homeowners on the value of their home while they are paying off a 30 year mortgage, with interest & really-—the property tax is just a disguised income tax on the middle class pushed by fake news & poor city dwellers on homeowners. (If you can afford a home. of COURSE you should pay more tax for the education of people living in housing projects!(Meanwhile, the rich billionaires pay cash for their homes & make no mortgage payments....as do corporate vulture capitalist home flippers)
Once you eliminate payroll taxes, they are hard to bring back. So you replace them by consumption taxes such as sales taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes, fees on buying franchises, stock, rental properties, businesses.........or with a VAT....of 15% to as high as 20%....thereby really removing an impediment to hiring new workers & paying for their healthcare.
Tax reform could have included eliminating payroll taxes and the corporate income tax....which would have left just one-out-of-4 income taxes & eliminated 3-out-of-4 income taxes.....which would have been real tax “simplification”. Using tax tables is NOT HARD......and taxes on corporations are the hardest to implement, calculate & collect....NOT individual taxes. The only time individual taxes are hard to calculate is when people have small businesses or corporations...and it HAS to be complicated, because business is not simple.
Republicans still can save the day by giving a tax deduction for paying dividends (best taxed as regular income..but maybe at 30%, but 21% might be OK, too)......and a tax CREDIT for profit-sharing or full funding of Health Savings Account deductibles........AND by replacing payroll taxes by consumption taxes.
With Paul Ryan now planning on “entitlement reform” after President Trump campaigned saying he would NOT cut Social Security or Medicare, Ryan now endangers the party like he did in 2006 & 2012...giving Congress a 10% approval rating & having Democrats & Obama sweep into power....against cutting entitlements, tax-cuts-for-the-rich, etc.
Do Republicans really want to go into the midterm elections which might lead to Trump impeachment & killing Hillary investigations bragging about cutting Social Security & Medicare....after cutting the top tax rate for billionaires & the Trump family (which Bannon called “traitors” & “BIG CORPORATIONS”. Just a few tweaks ....ie eliminating payroll taxes.....with credits & deductions against the corporate income tax for profit sharing, HSAs & dividends......would change the bad optics for good ones...and...in effect, get rid of the taxes with people hate the most, are most inefficient & most destructive...which are the corporate income & payroll taxes and NOT the income tax. Plus, if you eliminate payroll taxes & replace by consumption taxes, you get away from charges of having a “regressive” tax code....and pave the way for eliminating more deductions & having fewer tax brackets on a less steep tax code.
FANTASTIC!
Yes! And it’s only going to get better.
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