This new program examines the major provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and their impact on different industries. The analysis includes the key role that taxes play in economic policy, the stated goals of the TCJA, specific provisions, and recent results.
Looking into the future, the session reviews surveys concerning both near and long-term trends that may impact businesses. The stated goal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is to stimulate the U.S. economy after a long, but slow economic recovery from the Great Recession. The changes include significant cuts in corporate taxes, provisions for earnings from activities outside the U.S., and lower taxes for the majority of individual filers. As with all tax changes, the TCJA is based upon economic assumptions, but has resulted in significant accounting changes for both corporations and individuals. It’s further complicated since some provisions for corporate taxes phase out and individual provisions sunset.
The goals of this session are to provide CPAs with an understanding of tax policies; highlight the major provisions in the TCJA and their impact by industry; identify near and long-term concerns and trends that can shape the business environment; and discuss potential actions for management.
DESIGNED FOR
Public, private, and non-profit organizations and their members – CFOs, CEOs, Controllers, Managers and Auditors.
BENEFITS
- Understand the variables, including recent examples, that impact forecasting
- Explore the basis for tax policies in the U.S.
- Review the history of economic and tax policies
- Examine, by industry, the major changes in the TCJA that affect organizations and selected provisions for individual filers
- Highlight the goals of the TCJA and the results to date
- Review the results of surveys from CEOs and CFOs covering their current and mid-term concerns. Explore several major areas (risk management, M&A, alliances, financing, governance, and valuable future skills)
- Identify a series of long-term trends, their potential impact on various industries, and how they may significantly change the business environment. The topics include global public and private debt, AI, data privacy, blockchain, and others.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The Difficulty of Forecasting: The role economic forecasts play in tax policy and recent well-known forecasts that were wrong and why
- Taxes and Economic Policies: Composition of U.S. economy; fiscal and monetary policy; brief history of economic and tax policies; the U.S. economy in 2017
- Provisions of the TCJA: Major changes for businesses; selected changes for individuals; stated goals of TCJA; impact of the changes by industry
- Early Results: Factors affecting capital spending and recent uses of tax savings by corporations
- CEOs' and CFOs' Concerns: Summary of surveys focused on near and mid-term concerns; specific trends and business topics; suggestions to improve future corporate performance
- Long-Term Trends: Trends/events that may shape the business environment and what they can mean to your organization
COURSE LEVEL
Intermediate
PREREQUISITES
Experience and/or exposure to financial management.
ADVANCE PREPARATION
None