A tale of "two" tax laws.

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 little something for everyone, for those who want to say last month's tax Bill hurt business we have;

NEW YORK (AP) Citigroup reported a $18.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter on Tuesday as the financial conglomerate had to take more than $20 billion in accounting write-downs related to the new tax law.

The New York-based bank said it had a loss of $7.15 a share, compared with a profit of $3.57 billion, or $1.14 a share, in the same period a year ago.

Citigroup's loss, one of its biggest in its history, was mostly caused by accounting adjustments the bank had to make to bring it into compliance with the new tax law that was enacted last month. Excluding these one-time charges, which were expected by analysts, the bank earned a profit of $3.7 billion, or $1.28 a share.

Like many banks after the 2008 financial crisis, Citigroup had billions of dollars of what are known as deferred tax assets on its balance sheet. They are basically credits it could have used to pay future income taxes. These credits built up after the big Wall Street banks took billions of dollars in losses from bad mortgages and other toxic assets.

Citigroup, in particular, had a large amount of these credits on its balance sheet because the bank came dangerously close to failure in 2008 and required a government intervention to keep it afloat. Because the new tax bill lowered the corporate tax rate to 21 percent, the value of those tax-deferred assets had to be written down. Citigroup wrote off $19 billion of these assets last quarter, and still has roughly $45 billion of these credits still sitting on its balance sheet.

Other banks are expected to, or have already taken, similar write-downs, as they report their results last week and this week. JPMorgan Chase took a $2.4 billion charge when it reported its results Friday.


...and for those who will say it helped business we have;

UnitedHealth Group's earnings more than doubled in the final quarter of 2017, and the nation's largest insurer hiked its forecast well beyond expectations largely due to help from the federal tax overhaul.

UnitedHealth said Tuesday that it added $1.2 billion in 2017 non-cash earnings, as its fourth-quarter and full-year corporate tax rates were cut.

The $1.5 trillion tax cut plan that Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump sped into law last month also has prompted other companies to raise forecasts for the new year and announce employee bonuses. UnitedHealth said it will dedicate most of the benefit it receives from the law to accelerating investments in data analytics and technology.

UnitedHealth now expects adjusted earnings of $12.30 to $12.60 per share in 2018, up from an initial forecast for $10.55 to $10.85 and far better than the $11.44 that Wall Street was projecting, according to a survey by FactSet.

Shares jumped about 2 percent before the opening bell Tuesday.