A little bit of research highlights which of the Dow 30 companies benefit from corporate tax reform and which one are currently better at working the existing complex tax code.
Company Ticker Median effective income-tax rate – past five reported quarters
UnitedHealth Group Inc. US:UNH 40%
Home Depot Inc. US:HD 36%
Verizon Communications Inc. US:VZ 34%
Walt Disney Co. US:DIS 33%
McDonald’s Corp. US:MCD 33%
American Express Co. US:AXP 32%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. US:WMT 31%
Visa Inc. Class A US:V 29%
3M Co. US:MMM 28%
Caterpillar Inc. US:CAT 28%
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. US:JPM 28%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. US:GS 27%
United Technologies Corp. US:UTX 26%
Apple Inc. US:AAPL 26%
Travelers Cos. US:TRV 25%
Boeing Co. US:BA 24%
Procter & Gamble Co. US:PG 23%
DowDuPont Inc. US:DWDP 22%
Intel Corp. US:INTC 22%
Exxon Mobil Corp. US:XOM 21%
Coca-Cola Co. US:KO 21%
Cisco Systems Inc. US:CSCO 21%
Merck & Co. US:MRK 21%
Johnson & Johnson US:JNJ 19%
Pfizer Inc. US:PFE 18%
Chevron Corp. US:CVX 14%
Nike Inc. Class B US:NKE 14%
Microsoft Corp. US:MSFT 12%
International Business Machines Corp. US:IBM 10%
General Electric Co US:GE 1%
Source: FactSet
As for S&P 500 companies domiciled in the U.S for at least three of the five most recently reported fiscal quarters.
Here are the 10 with the highest median effective income-tax rates as relayed by Dow Jones and Co:
Company Ticker Median effective income-tax rate – past five reported quarters
Newmont Mining Corp. US:NEM 50%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. US:HPE 46%
Nordstrom Inc. US:JWN 45%
CenturyLink Inc. US:CTL 45%
Aetna Inc. US:AET 44%
Centene Corp. US:CNC 44%
TripAdvisor Inc. US:TRIP 43%
W.W. Grainger Inc. US:GWW 41%
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. US:HLT 41%
Amazon.com Inc. US:AMZN 41%
And lowest median tax rates over the past five reported quarters:
Company Ticker Median effective income-tax rate – past five reported quarters
Mosaic Co. US:MOS -40%
Apartment Investment and Management Co. US:AIV -37%
A poor sense of smell may indicate an increased risk for dementia, a new study has found.
Researchers recruited 2,906 men and women ages 57 to 85, testing their ability to identify five odors — orange, leather, peppermint, rose and fish.
Five years later, 4.1 percent of them had dementia. Of all the factors the researchers measured — age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, other diseases the subjects may have had — only cognitive ability at the start of the study and poorer performance on the “smell test” were associated with an increased risk for dementia. The study is in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
At least 58 people were killed and more than 515 were injured at an country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
The gunman fired for several minutes into a 22,000-person crowd from the windows of a 32nd floor hotel room, in the Mandalay Bay resort. Videos show chaos amid the gunfire, as people scrambled for cover, ran from the stage and struggled to save each other’s lives.
Police believe the gunman killed himself around the time a Swat team descended on his room. He had checked in there on 28 September, and police found at least 10 weapons with him.
Authorities identified the shooter as Stephen Paddock, 64, from Mesquite, Nevada, about 80 miles to the north-east. They were searching properties in his name.
Police do not know the motive behind the shooting; the gunman had no prior record in state or federal databases, save a minor traffic violation. The FBI said they have found “no connection to international terrorist organizations”.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “an act of pure evil,” and said he will go to las Vegas on Wednesday.
The gunman’s girlfriend, Marylou Danley, was named as a person of interest but police said the gunman acted alone at the hotel. Danley is abroad and cooperating with police.
The gunman’s brother expressed horror and shock, saying Paddock had no background with weapons. “No religious affiliation, no political affiliation, he just hung out,” he told television networks. “He’s just a guy who lived in a house in Mesquite, drove down and gambled in Las Vegas.”
Nevada authorities pleaded for blood donations from people in the Las Vegas area. Governor Brian Sandoval said the scene was “basically a war zone” – “we need blood.”
President Trump has issued a proclamation ordering the American flag to be flown at half-staff.
Who doesn’t have favorite pairs of shorts … or think about the potential for hard times or a doomsday?
I have a few shorts, jeans, jackets, etc and can’t bear to part with them when they get a tear or a hole and are worn bare … so end up looking for ways to stretch their life a little be longer. On Saturday morning I wasted an hour and a half getting out the Sailrite sewing machine and stitching a couple patches to the inside of my work shorts before heading out for yard chores.
Where is my commonsense? Likely the new hem (added to the bottom) and reinforced patches to cover holes aren’t going to last many more washings … but at least I’m ready for North Korea’s EMP strike(I probably should not joke about that?)
Anyway … I’ll get a least one more day out of these "comfortable" shorts.
This is the final weekend of summer for The Cone ice cream stop which use to be a regular treat when the kids were home. It is hard to believe but we have not even been there this summer so it didn’t take much for my buddy Jeff to entice me to go before it was closed! It was so tasty I’m kind of glad we didn’t over-do-it this summer! (if you can’t tell, I was trying to figure out a way in include this wild “ice cream loving” shark photo!)
After slowly giving up on ever really making my “90% hearing loss” right ear useful again (due to Ménière’s disease – posts 1 or 2), I had a chance to try out my buddy Jeff’s After Shokz bluetooth headset a couple weeks ago. I’m not saying it was like I was binaural again, BUT the “bone conduction” really does improve “sound” in my bad ear.
So last week I order an opened or damaged package from Amazon for $75 (saved 30% but was practically perfect) and am initially pretty happy with this active-wear bluetooth bone conducting headset. On the plus side, it is well made with a titanium band that wraps around the backside of you head/neck. The “speakers” rest just in front of your ears after looping over the top with a little spring pressure holding the vibrating pads against the side of your head. The ears are left open so it is surprisingly easy to hear what is going on around you even though in all but dead silence people around you will not hear what you are listening to. I haven’t given the phone connection a full test yet (noise canceling???), but have no problem hearing the caller on my end. On the downside, I suspect the music quality is less than perfect for persnickety listeners and most likely the amount of “vibration” will require more battery power at louder volumes and shorten the listening time between recharges. So far, no big deal.
About the only other plus minus is that it clamps (although gently) to your head for excellent positioning while active (running, walking, hiking, biking) but can be a little tiring if you use it for longer periods. Also … it is not a good choice if you wanted something when laying down (on your side) … which is something I often do with earbuds.
My advice is that if you have moderate hearing loss, give these or some kind of “bone conduction” headset a try (even if you wear a hearing aid) … it might surprise you and be well worth the cost.
President Trump will roll out his administration’s tax reform plan on Wednesday, seeking reductions in both the corporate and individual income tax rates, while doubling the standard deduction. The plan would cut corporate taxes from 35% to 20%, while dropping the top individual tax bracket from 39.6% to 35% and collapsing the current seven brackets to three, with the other two set at 25% and 12%. The income level at which those brackets would apply has not been specified. Some watchers suggest there is wiggle room to negotiate a fourth higher rate for the highest income earners.
The proposal calls for the removal of a number of deductions, but leaves the job of choosing which ones to eliminate to congress. The US brought in about $3.3T in revenue in 2016 – with 9% of that generated by corporate taxes ($300B) and 47% coming from individual income taxes ($1.55T). Critics argue the proposed tax rates will further increase the deficit ($585B in 2016) unless packaged with spending cuts.
