We are getting back about $1500 less in Federal than last year. I am super glad we don't owe, but I think this may mean our tax obligation is higher? It's hard to say since we both switched jobs in July. We had both been listed as single before (we got married in 2017 and neither of us thought to update) and now we are both listed as married, so I am actually wondering if we should change back to the single rate or we may owe next year. I think withholding at a higher rate for the first half of 2018 probably helped us a lot. We also have never itemized so I think perhaps the changes didn't affect us as much as those who previously benefited from deductions.
I am very curious if these tax laws will stay as they are in the future. It seems so many people are being harmed by them. Granted I live in a bit of a bubble, but I have yet to hear of anyone who is thrilled about their big tax break this year. It seems to all be stories of people owing more than normal.
The laws that provide a measly benefit to the lower/middle class will expire in a few years however the laws that greatly benefit the very wealthy ARE PERMANENT.
Chew on that for a minute.
It's completely ridiculous.
I am dumb when it comes to this, but permanent just means permanent until they go and pass a new law, right? Can legislation be passed that reverses or further changes these? I know that's not the simplest thing to do but if tons of people are being screwed could we eventually see something to correct this?
Post by goldengirlz on Feb 6, 2019 14:27:26 GMT -5
We’re going to start ours this weekend. I have no idea what to expect. H thinks we hit the AMT last year so maybe the SALT hit won’t matter as much.
ETA: I don’t have a problem paying higher taxes at our income level. I have a problem with none of that money going to people who need it.
We owed $7500 in federal last year and if we’re near or above that this year, mostly I’ll be frustrated that we haven’t been able to withhold the right amount.
The laws that provide a measly benefit to the lower/middle class will expire in a few years however the laws that greatly benefit the very wealthy ARE PERMANENT.
Chew on that for a minute.
It's completely ridiculous.
I am dumb when it comes to this, but permanent just means permanent until they go and pass a new law, right? Can legislation be passed that reverses or further changes these? I know that's not the simplest thing to do but if tons of people are being screwed could we eventually see something to correct this?
Theoretically yes. But realistically getting taxes ‘increased’ on the rich/businesses is a political no go and is unlikely to happen, or at least not for a very long time.
The party that does it will be killed in the next election for ‘raising taxes’ even though it’s only on the very wealthy and businesses
I should say at least that’s how it usually works. This one is hitting the middle class hard so it’s possible that it could get changed. But there will be the risk that the opposition uses it as a sound bite without clarifying what taxes
Post by puppylove64 on Feb 6, 2019 14:37:41 GMT -5
Our taxes due decreased for federal by $1k but since we used standard deduction when we used to itemize, state increased $600. We used to deduct a bunch of non reimbursed business mileage and can’t anymore
ultimately we decreased ever so slightly on federal from 25 to 22% but would have paid a lot less if not for all the other crap that was changed.
We're getting a lot more back than usual, but that's b/c DH made less money, kid credit went up, and I got a credit for being in school. So, it won't last forever. And yet, I owe the state, when I have never owed that before (I'm guessing b/c I used to itemize?) I'm not changing anything b/c i know those credits are temporary (well the school one) and DH's income is increasing about 20% this year.
our AGI HHI was roughly the same as last year and our refund will be about 1K less
not entirely sure why since we didn't max out SALT and we gave more than ever to charity, but i'm sure there are a million little things that I don't know about/understand. bye bye kitchen update....
Our taxes due decreased for federal by $1k but since we used standard deduction when we used to itemize, state increased $600. We used to deduct a bunch of non reimbursed business mileage and can’t anymore
ultimately we decreased ever so slightly on federal from 25 to 22% but would have paid a lot less if not for all the other crap that was changed.
For some states you can take the standard federal deduction and still itemize for your state return.
We are getting back $6k - but like discogranny, that's from the $7,500 credit from buying a Tesla in 2018. Otherwise we would owe $1,500
We earned more income, but the amount withheld in 2018 is about the same as 2017. So I need to look at our withholdings again. I'm pretty sure H is not holding back enough - he swears he changed his W-4, but at one point he was claiming me as a dependent even though I work. I'm curious if the change really was made.
Otherwise I think the tax changes were a wash for us. The difference between what we would have itemized and the new standard deduction almost makes up for the lost personal exemptions. But we don't have kids, our house is a fairly low interest rate, and our property taxes aren't all that high. It was somewhat of a stretch for us to itemize as it was.
Post by Velar Fricative on Feb 6, 2019 15:16:30 GMT -5
I thought the tax bill got rid of the electric car credit? Or maybe I’m just assuming Trump eliminated anything that sounded like it could save the environment.
Our taxes due decreased for federal by $1k but since we used standard deduction when we used to itemize, state increased $600. We used to deduct a bunch of non reimbursed business mileage and can’t anymore
ultimately we decreased ever so slightly on federal from 25 to 22% but would have paid a lot less if not for all the other crap that was changed.
For some states you can take the standard federal deduction and still itemize for your state return.
Not Georgia. And we have a crazy low standard deduction in GA. Plus, my taxable income number was $20k higher because there are no federal exemptions.
We normally owe a few thousand every year. Last year when they were saying to check the calculators because you may owe more at tax time, I panicked and we changed our withholdings to married but withhold as single and 0.
It looks like we paid about $1200 less in taxes for the year but we got a big refund because I changed the withholdings last March.
It's really hard for me to make any sort of reasonable comparison to years past. DH was unemployed for about 4 months in 2017 and 6 months in 2018, so that just fucks up all the numbers all around. His new job that he started in July was a significantly higher salary than he was previously making in 2017, so our taxable income is actually pretty high considering he was out of work for half the year.
In any event, we are getting a refund. However, about 75% of it is related to education credits that he gets for being a student. I have to say, it kind of floors me that we are not getting more back. I think that the fact that he did a bunch of contract stuff (Lyft driving/Grub hub, plus some professional consulting) is really biting us.
I'm don't feel strongly personally about how our taxes are shaking out because I really have no idea if we're getting screwed over by the new tax laws or not.
Our tax liability increased by $5000 thanks to the SALT cap. It was really depressing to repeatedly get the turbo tax message telling me I'd already reached my 10k limit but to keep inputting data to use on my state return.
Here's a question - I just put 2019 numbers into the IRS calculator to see if we are withholding enough. It says we're going to owe about $2k. It tells me that to fix this we should both fill out new W4s and that H should put down married with 0 dependents and I should put down married with 2 dependents. But we are both currently on married with 0 dependents. So wouldn't that *decrease* our withholding if I made that change? I think I'm just going to have him switch to married but withhold at single rate.
Our total income increased from 2017 around $5,600, our taxable income increased around $10,500, but our income tax decreased about $200. Then when you add the full child tax credit for 2 kids that we previously were being phased out of, we paid around $3k less in taxes this year.
We took the standard deduction both years.
I really like how TaxAct broke out all the numbers and compared last year and this year.
I thought the tax bill got rid of the electric car credit? Or maybe I’m just assuming Trump eliminated anything that sounded like it could save the environment.
For Tesla it was reduced from $7500 to $3750 once they had sold 200,000 vehicles and in July of this year it will be even further reduced by half.
Post by pinkplasticdoll on Feb 6, 2019 16:06:35 GMT -5
A quick run through our online tax processor shows we will get a small refund if not owe. We had a kid last year and expected that to get us a larger refund but it doesn't look hopeful.
I just did ours this afternoon and we’re getting a $900 refund as opposed to the $4K we usually get. Turbo Tax said we paid $3700 less taxes over the course of the year so either our withholdings are off or the new tax tables just moved our refund to our paychecks. DH did change jobs this year but his pay raise wasn’t big enough to impact things that much so I’m pretty stressed about making sure we at least break even next year.
I’ve only do the Turbo Tax estimator. Our AGI increased $10k, our taxable increased almost $30k however (fewer deductions). It’s telling me that our total income tax liability is only $95 more, which I find incorrect as it’s a 3% decrease in our effective tax rate. But we have a HHI so maybe we benefited more than we should have if taxation were “fair.”
Here's a question - I just put 2019 numbers into the IRS calculator to see if we are withholding enough. It says we're going to owe about $2k. It tells me that to fix this we should both fill out new W4s and that H should put down married with 0 dependents and I should put down married with 2 dependents. But we are both currently on married with 0 dependents. So wouldn't that *decrease* our withholding if I made that change? I think I'm just going to have him switch to married but withhold at single rate.
Good luck guessing. Last year it told me we would get a refund. I assumed that was 500% incorrect and carried on. We owe 4K. I input our numbers for 2019 last week in the same calculator, including an anticipated slight increase in income, and it says if we don’t change anything (0 exemptions and extra withholding from each check) we will pay too much and get a refund. So I will increase my tax liability, make no changes to the set up that made us owe 4K, but someone this will end with a refund next year? THAT MAKES NO SENSE.
Here's a question - I just put 2019 numbers into the IRS calculator to see if we are withholding enough. It says we're going to owe about $2k. It tells me that to fix this we should both fill out new W4s and that H should put down married with 0 dependents and I should put down married with 2 dependents. But we are both currently on married with 0 dependents. So wouldn't that *decrease* our withholding if I made that change? I think I'm just going to have him switch to married but withhold at single rate.
Good luck guessing. Last year it told me we would get a refund. I assumed that was 500% incorrect and carried on. We owe 4K. I input our numbers for 2019 last week in the same calculator, including an anticipated slight increase in income, and it says if we don’t change anything (0 exemptions and extra withholding from each check) we will pay too much and get a refund. So I will increase my tax liability, make no changes to the set up that made us owe 4K, but someone this will end with a refund next year? THAT MAKES NO SENSE.
Ugh, it's so dumb.
I find it very irritating that I can't anticipate things like this. I think we're both just going to switch to withhold at the single rate and hope for the best.
I don't trust the calculators either. They told me we'd owe and that we should withhold more. I knew the SALT deduction cap would affect us (live in CA), but I didn't know how that would be offset by the higher phase outs for certain credits, changes in child credits, hitting or not hitting the AMT (we didn't hit it), DH having a weird income and extra tax being taken out of each check because work was paying for school. We are also at a HHI that really benefited from the changing of the tax brackets, so I was hoping that would help us and it seems to have helped. Usually we owe about $3K for Federal. This year we got back $500 from Federal. We always get a refund from the State and this year's refund was very similar to last year's refund.