|
Double-edged deferral 递延资产是把双刃剑 How lower taxes could hurt Americas big banks 低税为何会让美国大银行很受伤 WHEN is a corporate-tax cut bad for acorporation? When it would trigger hefty write-downs of peculiar but critical assets, as is the caseat some of Americas largest banks. The accounting item in question is the deferred-tax asset. This is a legacy of the financial crisis. Americas tax code allows losses amassed duringthe meltdown to be used to offset future tax bills. Since a bank isincreasing its future cashflows by reducing expected tax payments, this is recorded as an asseton the balance-sheet. 什么时候削减公司税对公司不利?答案是，当它可能引发特殊而重要的资产发生重大减值时，就象美国最大的几家银行那样。我们这里要讨论的会计科目是递延税项资产，这是金融危机的产物。按照美国税法，经济崩溃时的累积亏损可用以抵减以后年度的税款。因为银行的预计税款支出减少，未来的现金流量将会增加，因此在资产负债表上它作为一项资产列示。 JPMorgan Chase held DTAs of $16 billion at the end of last year, while Bank of America had $27billion-worth. The undisputed deferred-tax king, however, is Citigroup with slightly more than$50 billion-worth, the largest discretionary accounting item in the companys history. | 
