Tax Planning Essay

Portfolio management is an important factor that determines the performance of the portfolio. To perform well in the portfolio, it is not only essential to develop personal investment strategies, but analyzing current financial trend is also vital. Stock Trak is an online portfolio simulation that allows students to try out different investment strategies, and also get a hand on experience in what the real market trading conditions are. By managing the portfolio, I have acquired some new knowledge of investment strategies and also become more familiar with the current market by following closely to the financial headlines.

Choosing two profitable stocks amongst a myriad of potential alternatives is a daunting task to say the least. In order to narrow my choices from thousands to two, I examined several aspects of companies I was interested in. Among these were, company overview, alpha and beta ratings, price ratios, price charts, and company headlines. After evaluating this information, I chose Intuit INC (INTU) listed on the NASDAQ and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) listed on the NYSE.

In the beginning, there was no real stock market. However stock exchanges did take place in smaller groups and corporations. This all took place during the 1700's where stocks were already around for a long time before that but it wasn't really popular in the United States. Stocks originally started as auctions where traders called out names of companies and the shares available. There was a auction that took place and the shares went to the highest bidders.

The 1301 1031 tax exchange refers to the exchange of real property that is “like-kind” (Reg.§1.1031(a)-1(b).

The federal and state governments provide the American citizens with all of the basic necessities within our communities and society that is taken for granted. Programs responsible for assistance in times of need, providing a quality standard of living, and maintaining the strongest military in the world costs incomprehensible amounts of money and could never exist without taxes from the American people. Taxes are payments made by individuals and businesses to support the government and its services. The constitution grants that congress “shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises and to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the people”. Taxes paid by Americans redistribute

Both coauthors explain “the myth of corporate taxes” with two statements: “When it comes down to it, no corporation or business really pays taxes,” and therefore, “the burden of it all falls on us [the taxpayers]” (32). They continue their explanation with another claim: “The economic education of Americans is so woefully inadequate that many of us actually think we pay less as individuals when the taxes are transferred to businesses and corporations” (31). To illustrate their point, the authors created a fictional corporation with simple guidelines. Although not their actual example, the following is similar: Qwerty Inc., a manufacturer of computer keyboards, has 200 employees and 100 shareholders. At the end of the year, Qwerty Inc. sold 1000 keyboards at $100 dollars each; therefore, the yearly income was $100,000. After labor, cost, taxes, and other charges, Qwerty’s profit is $2000 for the year. If the government adds a 10% corporate tax increase, Qwerty now owes an additional $200 in taxes. According to Boortz and Linder’s logic, Qwerty has several possibilities to balance the budget from the tax increase: the shareholders could see their dividends decrease, the price on the keyboards could be raised, some employees could be fired to save on cost, or employee benefits could decrease to cover the cost of the tax increase. This simple example demonstrates the current tax code’s consequences on the taxpayers (citizens and consumers) and introduces “the embedded

Horizontal analysis allows side by side comparisons on a year to year basis to determine the performance from one year to the next. The company decides on standards to compare the results of the analysis. Standards are researched by checking competitors, internet research of general industry guidelines or standards created from past experience in the company.

Kathy and Brett Ouray were married in 1996. In 2014, they consider themselves completely estranged. Due to financial reasons they have decided to not get a divorce or live separately. They also do not have any legal documentation of separation and neither of them has lived outside the home for a significant amount of time. They currently reside together with their three children. They have decided that Brett has contributed more to the upkeep of their home and children than Kathy. They have also decided to file separately. Brett believes he is eligible to file for head-of-household.

For the month of December, I was given an assignment consisting of $100,000 and four stocks to invest in. My four stocks were The Ralph Lauren Corp., Visa Inc., Master card Inc. and The Chevron Corp. As stated I was given a month to record my data and I ended up with a total capital gain of $5,518.36 for the one month period for my investments. I have to thank you Mr. Acker, this project was not difficult, but it did confuse me. Receiving this assignment scared me in a way, because I didn’t know what I was getting into. The finance world is scary and tricky, one minute the market is doing good and other days it would be low. While calculating my capital gains or losses I thought I would lose a larger

Budget is the major financial and economic statement. The role of the budget is to keep track of the money coming in and the money going out. It is essential part of running any business effectively. It can help make a short and long term projections about financial situation, avert a financial crisis and plan for major financial changes.

In addition to economic issues, taxation is also a political issue. Political leaders formulate tax policies to bring reforms in the taxation system in order to promote their agendas. The major tax reforms include: increasing or decreasing the tax rate, imposing new taxes on certain products and changing the definition of taxable income. It is evident from the research studies that no one deliberately wants to pay taxes. U.S’ tax policy reflects expression of influence - i.e., those who have power are successful in paying low taxes and their burden is shifted to people who have no power. Therefore retired individuals, small business owners and farmers find ways efforts to reduce their tax burden. Since its existence, tax policy has been enormously used for promoting political and economic agendas.

7. Compare your valuation with Smith Barney’s. What assumptions do you have to make to get the terminal value EBITDA multiples used by Smith Barney. Is there any benefit of their method relative to FCF method?

The United States is in a recession; it has been facing some of the worse economic times since the Great Depression in the 1930’s. One option to fix the economy is to change the corporate tax rate. To lower it or to raise it, that is the question economists have been speculating. America's high corporate tax rate and worldwide system of taxation discourages U.S. companies from sending their foreign-source revenue home, which makes U.S. companies defenseless to foreign acquisition from the international opponents (Camp). Corporations and United States citizens have been fighting for a tax reform, which would hopefully help the American economy; either by lowering the corporate tax, or by raising the tax.

A business owner that is generating excess cash on top of what they require to survive can take advantage of a tax deferral that is not available to salaried employees. The excess income generated can be invested in passive investments within the corporation. Since the excess income has been taxed at a lower corporate rate, this leaves more funds available for investment which allows for a higher level of compounding as well. Salaried employees are not in a position to be able to defer tax on an unlimited amount of income. Even though the business owner will eventually have to pay themselves dividends, Ottawa feels this deferral advantage gives them an unfair advantage over salary-earning Canadians.

Whenever economic turbulence increases, the policy makers adjust the taxation rates in an effort to stabilize it. When it comes to income