deficit - The S Corporation Association

President Releases 2011 Budget

The president released his FY2011 budget yesterday. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the administration begins with a ten year baseline deficit of $5.5 trillion dollars. Simply put, if Congress and the administration left current laws in place, the deficit would average over $500 billion per year for the next decade.

The president’s proposed policies would raise this deficit to $8.5 trillion. As a result, debt held by the public would increase from $5.8 trillion (41 percent of GDP) in 2008 to $17.5 trillion (76 percent of GDP) in 2019.

It …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:00+00:00February 2, 2010|

Senate Jobs Bill First Out of the Chute

With health care reform in a state of political limbo, Senate leadership is busy assembling a job-creation package that is likely to be the chamber’s next significant legislative effort.

Just before Christmas recess, the House hastily assembled and adopted a $154 billion spending package. In response, the Senate Finance Committee is working on a package that focuses more on tax relief than the House counterpart. As reported by Dow Jones:

The package would be paid for largely by re-directing funds that were available for the government’s bank bailout program, according …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:55+00:00January 26, 2010|

Tax Outlook for 2010 — Starting in a Hole

The economic fear that gripped folks in the Fall of 2008 has resulted in a historic collapse of federal revenues.

Revenue collections since 1960 have stayed in a relatively tight pattern centered around 18 percent of our GNP. Considering the range of tax policies we’ve imposed on taxpayers during that time, the steadiness of the 18 percent mean is remarkable and suggests some sort of political or economic boundary is in effect.

That steadiness was broken last year when federal collections fell to their lowest level since 1950. Meanwhile, Washington’s response to the crisis has driven federal spending to levels not seen …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:55+00:00January 15, 2010|

Estate Tax Update

Where to start? The August break is nearly over and Congress is scheduled to return after Labor Day with a full agenda that includes finishing (or finishing off) health care reform, wrapping up all the spending bills, increasing the debt ceiling, doing something on the energy front, and adopting a package extending expiring tax provisions, including a possible estate tax compromise.

Earlier this month, Martin Vaughan of the AP had a nice piece outlining the current state of play on the estate tax. While the House is poised …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:56+00:00August 31, 2009|

House Releases Health Care Legislation

As expected, House Leadership released its health care reform plan yesterday — America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R. 3200). As you can imagine, there are any number of provisions to explore in a 1000-page health care bill, but for S corporations, the big four items appear to be:

The new health insurance exchange;
The surtax on high income individuals;
The health insurance tax credit for smaller firms; and
The payroll tax penalty for non-participating firms.

Supporters of the plan argue that the combination of the health care exchange and …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:56+00:00July 15, 2009|