CFO Focus: Tax reform, 2017 edition

The 2017 tax reform bill is a potentially earth-moving event. It is the largest tax overhaul since the 1986 Tax Reform Act and the largest private business and public corporate tax cut in the history of our nation.

The tax bill’s success or failure will have very significant outcomes for the credit union community and the economy. As I write this, the two chambers of Congress are in conference reconciling their differences. Therefore, I am using what I think are the most conservative versions between the House and the Senate.

Predicting potential outcomes depends upon your perspective. If you believe in the supply-side approach that assumes that a massive corporate tax cut will quickly spur economic growth, the positives of the bill will more than offset some of negatives of the bill. The negatives would be the partial or total elimination of important individual tax deductions and exemptions.

If you do not believe in supply-side economics (loss of tax revenue is made up for with tax-cut driven economic growth), there are some significant negatives for credit unions and their members.

 

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