Wednesday, December 6, 2017

The US Government By Cutting the US Federal Income Tax Benefit Rate By 43% on Past Year Employee Benefit Costs Incurred But Not Tax Realized Yet as the Trump Tax Bill Does Is Horribly Oppressive Tax Policy .................................................................................... It's Like the US Government Saying That The Value of Those Past Employee Services Are Now Worth Substantially Less on a Net Of Tax Benefit Basis Than They Were When the Employee Services Were Performed

From a quick review of income tax footnotes in SEC filings, I found 169 US Companies which disclosed Deferred Income Tax Assets Related to Employee Benefits of at least $300 Mil on mostly December 31, 2016.

There were many other US Companies which didn't disclose their Deferred Income Tax Asset caused by just Past Employee Benefit Costs Incurred but where the tax benefit has not yet been realized.

The problem here is that by the Trump Tax Bill reducing the US Corporate Income Tax Rate by 43% from 35% to 20%, these US Companies will need to writedown the US portion of their Deferred Income Tax Assets by quite a bit just due to a subsequent US Government tax fiat.

That seems very unfair to US Companies initiating these employee plans and incurring costs in the past and then now getting financially nailed for something which provides no economic stimulus to the US economy.

Net

Deferred 

Income

Tax 

Asset
Deferred Income Tax Asset Mostly
Due to Prior Years Employee Benefits 12-31-16

bils $s


General Electric                 15,193
Boeing                 10,878
Verizon                 10,453
AT&T                 10,045
General Motors                   8,421
Ford Motor                   6,620
Lockheed Martin                   6,511
Exxon Mobil                   6,053
Delta Air Lines                   5,259
IBM                   4,671
DuPont                   4,529
Chevron                   4,392
United Parcel Service                   4,236
Wells Fargo                   4,045
Citigroup                   3,798
Dow Chemical                   3,715
Morgan Stanley                   3,504
Caterpillar                   3,467
Pfizer                   3,356
Northrup Grumman                   3,163
Deere & Co                   3,030
Johnson & Johnson                   2,958
JPMorgan Chase                   2,911
American Airlines                   2,901
Raytheon                   2,770
Banc of America                   2,677
Goldman Sachs                   2,461
United Technologies                   2,382
CenturyLink                   2,300
Exelon Corp                   2,287
FedEx                   1,951
Southern Co                   1,868
Procter & Gamble                   1,775
International Paper                   1,766
General Dynamics                   1,718
United Continental                   1,662
Hewlett Packard Enterprise                   1,655
FirstEnergy                   1,616
Coca Cola                   1,599
3M                   1,412
Arconic                   1,382
PepsiCo                   1,349
Altria Group                   1,282
ConocoPhillips                   1,280
Navistar Intl                   1,274
Oracle                   1,251
Alcoa                   1,240
Intel                   1,182
American Intl Group                   1,171
Merck                   1,165
Eli Lilly                   1,126
Metlife                   1,099
Honeywell                   1,091
Abbott Labs                   1,061
Accenture                   1,029
Kraft Heinz                   1,025
Xerox                   1,012
Alphabet                      939
Medtronic                      883
Kroger                      850
CBS                      843
Mondelez                      821
Prudential Financial                      789
Eaton Corp plc                      761
Reynolds American                      759
Corning                      745
Textron                      704
Motorola Solutions                      693
Sempra Energy                      686
Anadarko Petroleum                      672
Phillips 66                      669
Abbvie                      665
Ingresoll-Rand plc                      653
Eversource Energy                      641
United States Steel                      633
Marsh & McLennan Cos                      629
Becton Dickinson                      618
General Mills                      616
PPG Industries                      604
Colgate-Palmolive                      599
American Express                      595
McKesson                      593
HP Inc                      592
Consolidated Edison                      581
Marathon Petroleum Corp                      578
Parker-Hannifin                      571
Huntington Ingalls Industries                      568
L3 Technologies                      567
Occidental Petroleum                      564
Allstate                      561
Emerson Electric                      559
CNH Industrial                      553
PNC Financial                      548
Voya Financial                      548
Phillip Morris                      543
Ball Corp                      526
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals                      520
Hartford Financial Services                      517
Harris Corp                      509
Cisco Systems                      504
Amphenol                      501
Principal Financial Group                      501
NRG Energy                      501
Kimberly Clark                      499
Kellogg                      483
Cigna                      481
Weyerhaeuser                      471
Bank of New York Mellon                      471
CVS Health                      465
Rockwell Collins                      465
Norfolk Southern                      464
Target                      455
BB&T                      451
Southwest Airlines                      451
Chubb Ltd                      449
Marriott                      430
Allegheny Technologies                      430
Peabody Energy                      422
TJX Companies                      412
Baxter                      411
Loews                      407
Praxair                      404
LyondellBasell Industries                      404
Freeport-McMoran                      403
AK Steel                      403
Kinder Morgan Inc                      401
State Street Corp                      401
Cummins                      401
Anthem                      401
BlackRock                      399
CSX                      397
Genuine Parts                      397
McDonald's                      395
US Bancorp                      394
Danaher                      392
Estee Lauder                      380
Eastman Chemical                      378
Newmont Mining                      374
Thermo Fisher Scientific                      372
Air Products & Chemicals                      370
Stanley Black & Decker                      363
Sysco Corp                      361
HCA Healthcare                      359
Bristol Myers                      358
Halliburton                      352
Nike                      348
Viacom                      348
Valero Energy                      344
Walgreen's Boots Alliance                      341
Conagra Brands                      339
Campbell Soup                      339
Sprint                      332
Illinois Tool Works                      331
Goodyear Tire                      331
Huntsman                      329
DTE Energy                      324
CenterPoint Energy                      316
Celanese                      313
Monsanto                      311
New York Times                      310
Leucadia National                      309
Lincoln National                      309
Omicom Group                      308
Archer Daniels Midland                      307
Unum Group                      307
Rockwell Automation                      306
AES Corp                      306
CONSOL Energy                      303
Edison Intl                      300


Total all 169               240,186