The U.S. Treasury's cash balance soared to $897 billion, its highest since May 2022, propelled by increased tax payments. April saw a $210.0 billion surplus, beating expectations, with receipts hitting $776 billion, a 22% surge from last year. Despite this, the deficit is projected to exceed $1.5 trillion for the fiscal year.
This monetary surge is fueled by an uptick in tax contributions from individuals and corporations. Corporate taxes alone contributed approximately $63.5 billion, while non-withheld individual electronic payments and 'other' payments added $86.6 billion and $4.66 billion, respectively, to the Treasury's coffers.
A friend of mine made the argument that a government surplus is worse than a deficit, because a surplus means they stole your money and didn't even do anything with it.
My counter is that they would likely have done something evil with it, so it's actually not as bad, but it's still an interesting perspective.
This is just like tax season.
You want it to be as close to zero as possible, so you arent letting them hold your money interest free.
That’s why I always took maximum exemptions. I don’t want them getting a zero interest loan from me.
You just have to work it out and balance it.
I would rather pay them than have them give me back my money after holding it the whole year. Just absurd. This is how I was taught from my father.
Sounds like a smart man
Sounds like a man that lives in reality.
He has been saying all the things everyone is saying here for years.
Surplus means taxes are coming in faster than Congress can spend it.
Deficits and surplus don’t matter. What matters is total expenditures or budget.
Biden latest proposal is 8 trillion dollars budget for the next fiscal year
8 trillion is evil regardless of deficit or surplus
I don't think so. If they spent just as much but were running a surplus because taxes were so high, that would be worse.
I agree though, that most of the time it's a distraction and spending is more important.
Good point about surplus and high taxation.
Spending is the key metric because taxation is what governments spend not what it collects.
I wish people would stop talking about balancing the budget. We can “balance” the budget with high taxes but that trade off is unacceptable
I think it was Ron Paul who said “Spending is the tax.”
And Milton Friedman
Adam Smith and Frederic Bastiat probably said it too.
I don’t think Smith would have said that, but the other two might have.
A surplus is not "not doing anything". It's paying off public debt, therefore reducing future interest payment burden.
Not always
A surplus can be earmarked for new projects or spending more on current programs
Best use of surplus is tax rebates
I’m reminded of Ron Swanson wanting to cut every taxpayer a 50 cent check, when they were debating what to do with a small surplus.
That's true for governments that carry a debt, but many states have balanced budget amendments If one of those states were running a surplus, that money would not be paying for anything. It would just be taxation for taxation's sake.
Corporate taxing is a good thing, but it has to be done smartly.
Corporate tax should be eliminated or close to zero
Why? I think companies should be taxed.
Not into oblivion, but it should be their responsibility to shoulder some of the burdens.
Especially for its workers. A company should make profit, but it also should rewards its workers. Seeing so many wring profit and not actually help society seems a bit wrong.
At least help the society that it actually touches....its workers.
Corporations are not the enemy of the worker. Government is the enemy of the workers.
Workers benefit when job openings >> job applicants. The way to maximize jobs and openings is by stimulating startups and business expansion.
Taxes on corporations hurt employees. Less money for businesses to distribute dividends and raises.
Businesses can pass on taxes to their customers so a tax on business is a tax on the consumer.
What are the parts of a business or corporation?
Owners pay tax on their income, dividends and capital gains.
Employees are subject to income and social security and other payroll taxes.
Customers pay sales tax.
Every corporate transaction is already taxed.
A corporate tax is redundant and punitive.
High corporate taxes is a big reason why corporations move jobs and operations overseas to lower tax states or countries. They invert assets and cash to low tax countries like Ireland. Google and Apple have inverted billions of dollars to Ireland 🇮🇪.
Low or zero corporate taxes would stimulate investment from abroad. It would be the opposite of outsourcing, in-sourcing.
Toyota and Hyundai have plants in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
Corporate taxes are an albatross for corporations.
Seriously, with the amount of money that is being made, they can stomach it.
There is a reason people look for jobs that are worth retiring at because of how companies treat their employees.
It depends on the industry and the size of a company.
Take Boeing for example. Their reputation is at an all time low. That will hurt their bottom line and market cap.
If they treated their employees well, I dont think they would be having so many problems...especially whistleblowers.
The whistle blowers were killed.
Boeing downfall started when it merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. MBA candidates replaced engineers especially in quality assurance.
A lot of great companies have been destroyed by MBA graduates 🎓 who have no industry experience and rely on spreadsheets, power point and textbook case studies
What! We can put it like that people are taxed more so as to get more balnce on the sheets. These are huge differences, and always occured before elections. I don't understand why is it a necessity to become more rigid right before elections.
This monetary surge is fueled by an uptick in tax
contributionsextortion payments from individuals and corporations.FTFY.
What! I thought, US has more tax revolting people now. But they have just been taxed more I think, so the taxes are paid more.