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How Many Got Screwed by the New Tax Laws?
- Thread starter majspud
- Start date
fencer
NES Member
Me Too! ( In three years when my house is paid off!)
I always owe. However, my total Federal tax went down about $3k. And it is still waaaay to much.
A good friend of mine says "Yeah, I hate paying taxes too. But like it if I call the fire department and they show up"
I am in favor of a flat tax. Stop penalizing people for hard work and success. And FFS, if someone is physically able and under retirement age, if they get a check, make them do something.
One truism about taxes: No matter WHAT they do to the tax code it will benefit some people and piss off others.
I was anticipating having to pay at least 1K in Federal tax. The SALT limitation hit me as it hit many others who itemize.
HOWEVER, I did benefit from the new Small Business deduction. Ended up getting a $550 refund. Which will be eaten up by the $790 I have to pay to the Commiewealth.
Still better than the last few years, for me at least.
I was anticipating having to pay at least 1K in Federal tax. The SALT limitation hit me as it hit many others who itemize.
HOWEVER, I did benefit from the new Small Business deduction. Ended up getting a $550 refund. Which will be eaten up by the $790 I have to pay to the Commiewealth.
Still better than the last few years, for me at least.
smokey-seven
NES Member
I have no idea what happend?
My check changed 2 times in the past year.
First i took home .94 cents less then it changed again around october and it went up . My pay has been the same for a long time. With all the tax changes my final amount was only changed after the decimal.
Been a past busy year for medical expenses which we will also still be paying off this year.
Now since we need more of our money each week the wife and I have to figure out what is the best approach for claiming deduction on out pay roll. We like the "savings account" aspect of our current with holdings. Although like i said we need more of our paycheck each week as cost of living has far out paced our pay.
My check changed 2 times in the past year.
First i took home .94 cents less then it changed again around october and it went up . My pay has been the same for a long time. With all the tax changes my final amount was only changed after the decimal.
Been a past busy year for medical expenses which we will also still be paying off this year.
Now since we need more of our money each week the wife and I have to figure out what is the best approach for claiming deduction on out pay roll. We like the "savings account" aspect of our current with holdings. Although like i said we need more of our paycheck each week as cost of living has far out paced our pay.
I know once went in my check went up an extra $58 a week (roughly 3250 extra in pocket a year) while claiming 0. After filling taxes got 2500 back from fed, 450 from state. Did ok add is lil les than usual refund but added in pocket more made up for it.
What income range received the largest increase in pay / Tax decrease?
I’m guessing either lower income or upper middle income seem the biggest changes. Looked at my wife’s checks from last year , same as me about $1 less in her pay a week.
I’m guessing either lower income or upper middle income seem the biggest changes. Looked at my wife’s checks from last year , same as me about $1 less in her pay a week.
VetteGirlMA
NES Member
I'm in the same boat. I pay taxes primarily to CT and and some to MA (due to additional income) and property taxes in both MA and RI. The SALT cap caught me off guard but hopefully I fixed it for next year. The best part is I am essentially paying myself in the future. But still everyone has a hand in my pocket
40 caliber
NES Member
My overall liability was down significantly over last year. They didn't take out as much as previously and i paid in 4 times as much as usual... as long as I remind myself that I paid less in 18 vs 17 i am ok
Uncle Buck
NES Member
Got a few hundred dollars less back this year. But on the positive side last years lower tax rate equaled this.
Thank you President Trump.
Thank you President Trump.
greencobra
NES Member
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doin' a happy dance here, no complaints.
Soundwave
NES Member
I don't know the exact numbers yet but it looks like I broke even. Thankfully they increased the child credit and that helped offset me being screwed by the changes. With kid number two on the way and me doing some work to the house this year next year should be better
Retired-LEO
NES Member
If you fully understand how the new law works. (most will do slightly better or about the same)
They took LESS out of checks every month. So yes the returns were smaller.
When I added up the increased amount of money after taxes in our checks to the reduced tax return it was a few hundred better than last year (despite the tax return being much smaller)
They took LESS out of checks every month. So yes the returns were smaller.
When I added up the increased amount of money after taxes in our checks to the reduced tax return it was a few hundred better than last year (despite the tax return being much smaller)
icyclefar
NES Member
Bottom line, my effective combined rate both state and federal went up 6/10ths of a percent over last year. Ended up with the standard deduction of 18k filing single head of household.
Emergency services will always show up...after all, they know where to send the bill afterwards. That's how private fire companies worked back in the day, and that's how ambulances work nowadays. Turns out, even roads existed before the income tax
Refund are based on what you withhold......has nothing to do with "tax breaks".
Look at what you were required to pay this year is last. That's where you'll see if you got a break or not.
Me .....I owe every year. I set aside money to pay my tax bill every spring.
I prefer to not give the government an interest free loan.
As far as my bill this year vs last......I paid more.....but there were some transactions made that played into that that I didn't have to deal with in 2017. But I planned for that too.
Way too many people rely on the weekly automatic payroll deductions and base their opinion of taxes on what their refund was. That's not the way to do business with the federal government. Be smart with your paycheck......let your company take out the bare minumim.......budget what you set aside in preparation for your bill and keep it in the bank.....any decent tax accountant can help you determine what to set aside weekly for the bill in April.
Look at what you were required to pay this year is last. That's where you'll see if you got a break or not.
Me .....I owe every year. I set aside money to pay my tax bill every spring.
I prefer to not give the government an interest free loan.
As far as my bill this year vs last......I paid more.....but there were some transactions made that played into that that I didn't have to deal with in 2017. But I planned for that too.
Way too many people rely on the weekly automatic payroll deductions and base their opinion of taxes on what their refund was. That's not the way to do business with the federal government. Be smart with your paycheck......let your company take out the bare minumim.......budget what you set aside in preparation for your bill and keep it in the bank.....any decent tax accountant can help you determine what to set aside weekly for the bill in April.
strangenh
NES Member
Well, bump.
Got our returns back from the accountant. The SALT limit bit us but only slightly in the grand scheme of things. We took the std deduction, just barely, and it overall resulted in a small refund. We paid in less tax than last year, and so net-net we did a little better. Honestly, I bet next year a lot of people will save hours (and dollars on third party prep) by not itemizing. Not sure what the impact on charities will be (for us, none, though it might encourage us to give some more to NON-501(c)(3) orgs since we won't be losing any tax break much thereby).
Got our returns back from the accountant. The SALT limit bit us but only slightly in the grand scheme of things. We took the std deduction, just barely, and it overall resulted in a small refund. We paid in less tax than last year, and so net-net we did a little better. Honestly, I bet next year a lot of people will save hours (and dollars on third party prep) by not itemizing. Not sure what the impact on charities will be (for us, none, though it might encourage us to give some more to NON-501(c)(3) orgs since we won't be losing any tax break much thereby).
That might be theoretically true, if all states were otherwise equal, but they’re not.
It turns out that the high tax states tend to pay more federal tax and get less federal benefits than the low tax states.
strangenh
NES Member
True, but unrelated. "Part of the idea is to stop rewarding high-tax/spend states with effectively taking the money from other states." The unlimited SALT deduction was an incentive to increase state spending. That it tends to be the case that high-tax states are now net-contributors from a federal tax/spend perspective doesn't detract that an unlimited SALT deduction has been, throughout the history of the federal income tax, an incentive to all states to increase their tax/spend. A cap makes sense. We can certainly argue where it should be (and I'd bet almost all rational selfish-interest economic actors would say it should be just a few percent over their own SALT burden), but a cap on it is necessary to stop runaway tax/spend effectively subsidized by the federal government.
I'd love to see the SALT deduction numbers factored into that "federal net tax spend" number, because it almost always isn't.
strangenh
NES Member
Sure, which is the reason it was there in the first place from the start. But it is also irrelevant if it created a perverse incentive. A cap on it balances the double-taxation issues with throttling back the perverse incentive. If it was all so neutral as to just be avoiding double taxation, I wonder why states didn't propose their income taxes have deductions for federal tax over the SALT line in response to the cap rather than just trying to find ways to have the same tax not count as SALT.
I'm not sure how bad it is, it's not like anyone ever said, "let's tax the hell out of our state's residents so we can pay less federal tax!" That doesn't make fiscal sense: pay 5% of income to save 1% of income is a losing proposition. (assuming 5% state and 20% fed. rates)
The high local taxes (in theory) pay for local services. Penalizing people who want to pay for local services is kinda nuts, it reeks of socialism. Just like it's unreasonable to penalize rich towns who want to put more into their school system.
Some states *did* try to create rules so if you donated to suitable charities (I don't know what "suitable" means) you could treat that donation as a tax *credit*, thereby saving you the money the feds wouldn't let you deduct. But the IRS (rightly) ruled that such shenanigans violated the "no quid pro quo" rule of deductible donations.
If you mean, "why aren't federal taxes deductible on your state return?", well, in excel it would be a 'circular link' and be unresolvable without calculus; that makes it kind of a non-starter for tax policy.
