federal 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|

Value-Added Tax Coming to America?

Two weeks ago, the Senate Finance Committee released its summary of options to pay for health care reform. As expected, the list was long and could be divided up any number of ways. One item missing from the list, however, is a source of revenue folks are talking about for health care reform and other spending priorities too — a value added tax (VAT).

The Finance Committee summary followed the release of papers on improving health care delivery and expanding coverage. The key to all three papers is that, while they give the reader a sense of where the Committee is …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:56+00:00June 2, 2009|

The Washington Post Discovers Small Employers

The Washington Post this week reported on an issue that shouldn’t come as a surprise for S-CORP readers: President Obama’s tax plans could hurt many of America’s small businesses. Small business owners who report their business profits on their personal income returns (like most small business owners do) are suddenly finding themselves classified as the “richest” Americans, and thereby subject to Obama’s tax increases. The Post explains:

Across the nation, many business owners are watching anxiously as the President undertakes expensive initiatives to overhaul health care and expand educational opportunities, while also reining …

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admin2019-02-06T17:21:56+00:00April 28, 2009|