Taxing the Country (and my Brain)

Kristen Gilbride, Verrazano Class of 2018, Completed
Major in Accounting

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Going into my senior year as a Verrazano student, choosing a topic for my capstone was in the very front of my mind. As an accounting major, I knew I wanted to study something in my field, not only so I could put it on my resumé, but to also get a better understanding of different issues impacting the accounting profession. This being said, I had no idea what I wanted to research. Around this time, President Trump was freshly inaugurated and talks of a new tax plan were being discussed on Capitol Hill. Because of all of the controversy surrounding this new administration, there were many conflicting reports of who the proposed plan  would benefit, who it would hurt, and whether or not this plan would put the country into a greater deficit. Ultimately, I decided to pursue this topic because I wanted to see what the actual impacts would be, without letting politics and personal beliefs get in the way of a true analysis of the new plan. 

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs act became law on December 22nd, 2017, I began compiling my research. Because nothing had been implemented yet, everything was speculation. It was hard for me to formulate a paper because some of my sources were contradicting each other. I was getting frustrated and I was beginning to question my topic choice. But, with the support of my family, I persevered and kept researching, and finally found the answers I needed.

One of the biggest hurdles I faced when creating this paper was actually writing the paper itself. As an accounting student, all of my time was spent analyzing numbers and working with spreadsheets and financial statements, not writing research papers. While I have had to write some research papers in the past, none even compared to the length and magnitude of this paper. I began to get nervous that I wouldn’t have enough research or sources to fill twelve pages, and because a lot of what this paper entailed was commenting on speculation, I didn’t feel like the paper would be any good. But once I calmed myself down (and read a post on the internet about how to structure a major research paper), I began writing and surprised myself with how easily my thoughts and research translated and flowed onto the paper. Before I knew it, I had almost 20 pages of content that I was actually proud of. 

Writing this paper was exhausting, irritating, and EXPENSIVE (I drank enough iced coffee to power a small city). But, it was also interesting and incredibly rewarding. I had written something that was my own, that I could put my name on and be proud of and show off to others. It was also really cool to be able to discuss my project with professionals in my field. They were impressed by how knowledgeable I was on such a confusing and large topic that some of them didn’t really have much information about. Overall, I was incredibly happy that I was able to write something that would help anyone, accountant or not, understand what would be happening with their money in the near future.

President Trump Signing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act