I got an email from my employer that they hadn't been withholding enough, and ended up getting a smaller refund than last year. DH got a raise, but not enough to push us up into the next bracket. I was just happy not to owe.
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.
It’s so frustrating. We basically made an educated guess on our bracket and liability for this year, and we are just going to check in quarterly on progress towards that amount. It’s so hard for us to get right bc I’m salaried but h is salary + (mostly) commission, and it’s unpredictable. So our plan is to check quarterly and then if necessary have the last commission check of the year entirely withheld. TO BREAK EVEN. 🙄 I absolutely would not mind paying our share to help others but funding some asshole CEO’s tax cut really pisses me off.
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 think this is what we are going to do, too. Or, I've considered doing married withholding at the married rate, and just making sure we set aside a couple grand in case we end up owing. I don't understand why it's so damned complicated to figure out what your taxes are going to be. Most Americans get a surprise most years and that's super dumb IMO.
I just looked at my tax to income ratio over the past 3 years - My income did increase every year, but I stayed within the same tax bracket. My deductions stayed the same in that I took the standard deduction every year, so you'd think that the higher standard deduction would mean I pay less taxes, right? 2016 - 10% of my income to federal taxes 2017 - 10% 2018 - 13%
So...a slight increase. I personally didn't feel it because what I withheld was what I owed. If this increase was due to needing more money to fund healthcare or infrastructure improvements, or welfare, or basically anything that helps everyone, I would have no issue. It just extra stings that my extra 3% is going to line the pockets of corporations and the ultra-rich. Fuckers.
I don't trust the calculators either, but I can figure it all out using the withholding tables, tax brackets, and some math. I usually get pretty close to owing exactly what I think I will.
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 think this is what we are going to do, too. Or, I've considered doing married withholding at the married rate, and just making sure we set aside a couple grand in case we end up owing. I don't understand why it's so damned complicated to figure out what your taxes are going to be. Most Americans get a surprise most years and that's super dumb IMO.
Really? Some of us have pretty fucking complicated tax situations.
I think this is what we are going to do, too. Or, I've considered doing married withholding at the married rate, and just making sure we set aside a couple grand in case we end up owing. I don't understand why it's so damned complicated to figure out what your taxes are going to be. Most Americans get a surprise most years and that's super dumb IMO.
Really? Some of us have pretty fucking complicated tax situations.
I interpreted wildrice's comment to mean that the complexity of the tax structure is dumb, not that Americans who fail to accurately predict what they'll owe are dumb.
H and I both have engineering degrees and find it difficult to get our taxes right due to complicated tax laws and his company's variable income. Thank goodness for safe harbor or we'd have had to pay penalties several times!
Just got ours back. Our total tax liability increased slightly proportionately with our income (so we're not getting taxed more) but our total withholding went down by 3.5% over last year. So we will owe, not a huge amount but enough that it's a headache for us. Especially since we're hoping to buy a house this spring and need every dollar we can save for a downpayment.
Really? Some of us have pretty fucking complicated tax situations.
I interpreted wildrice's comment to mean that the complexity of the tax structure is dumb, not that Americans who fail to accurately predict what they'll owe are dumb.
H and I both have engineering degrees and find it difficult to get our taxes right due to complicated tax laws and his company's variable income. Thank goodness for safe harbor or we'd have had to pay penalties several times!
I'm going to do them this weekend. H's last job used to give bonuses in March, which was nice to get along side a tax refund. He switched jobs in May and this job also gives bonuses in March, but it's a small fraction of what he used to get (he went with the larger guaranteed salary). The used to be a really nice time of year. Not anymore. And if we end up owing a lot we can't fall back on a nice chunk of bonus change to help out. :/
I interpreted wildrice 's comment to mean that the complexity of the tax structure is dumb, not that Americans who fail to accurately predict what they'll owe are dumb.
H and I both have engineering degrees and find it difficult to get our taxes right due to complicated tax laws and his company's variable income. Thank goodness for safe harbor or we'd have had to pay penalties several times!
Ah ok that makes a lot more sense!
Yes, that's what I meant It's dumb that they've made it this hard for everyone to figure out. It's really unfair that so many people end up with a nasty surprise. And that so many of us are just guessing how to correct it for next year instead of having actual information to base decisions on.
For the precious three years, we owed $1200 - $1700 to the fed. For last years, we owe $500 something, but we’re getting $300 something back from the state, so not as bad as it could have been. 🤷🏻♀️
I was super surprised when I started because we are still receiving a refund (normal for us), albeit smaller. When I did the IRS calculator earlier in the year (like May) it showed we'd owe, so I adjusted. When I revisited the calculator in November it said we'd owe. But now it looks like we'll be ok? Obviously I can't trust the calculators like I used to.
Yes, that's what I meant It's dumb that they've made it this hard for everyone to figure out. It's really unfair that so many people end up with a nasty surprise. And that so many of us are just guessing how to correct it for next year instead of having actual information to base decisions on.
I remember talking with my sister about US taxes once. (She is a Canadian lawyer.)
She mentioned her tax law class, and pointed at a random bookcase. "See that shelf? A single shelf in that bookcase can hold all of Canadian tax law." Then she spread her hands apart, implying several bookcases, "US tax law _might_ fit in a fee bookcases."
US taxcode is stupidly complicated. Probably because no one can manage to ever remove anything from the code, just add and possibly supercede.
Post by underwaterrhymes on Feb 7, 2019 8:54:30 GMT -5
We are getting $900 back after TurboTax fees.
We got more back last year, but it’s hard to compare because I got a significant promotion this year. And last year I had some additional income from some contracting I did on the side through my former employer. It didn’t amount to much because I stopped working for them pretty early in the year, but I also didn’t file quarterly taxes.
We did and are getting a larger fed refund than we anticipated. Dh and I withheld an extra $250 per paycheck, which was overkill but we would have owed otherwise.
Our property taxes and car tax are almost $10k and state taxes are about $10k too.
Last year we got about $6500 back. We are married and file jointly but withhold at a higher single rate. We had a baby in 2017 and also paid for daycare for 3 months of 2017. For 2018 we got paid just about the same, we paid for a year in daycare and we refinanced our home. I have no clue what to think we will get back, but I just gave everything to our accountant to file and sort out for us. Fingers crossed we get something back.
I got an email from my employer that they hadn't been withholding enough, and ended up getting a smaller refund than last year. DH got a raise, but not enough to push us up into the next bracket. I was just happy not to owe.
I'm thinking this is what happened with us. DH switched jobs in June and I think somehow the withholdings got messed up, which really pisses me off because he went from a medium local company to working for a giant Fortune 100. He got a small increase and we switched from biweekly to a 15th and 30th pay schedule so I just assumed that the higher paychecks were because of that. In hindsight it was good that we had extra cash in our pockets because we had to meet a deductible for the last quarter of 2018 and are now turning around and doing the same for 2019 but I was counting on that refund to help shore our savings back up after we had to make an expensive home repair last year. I'm going to need to find a decent calculator to work out what we're supposed to be doing for 2019 because I don't deal well four figure financial surprises.
My tax liability so far has increased by $858, but that is before I have put in my 1099-int (won't get them for another month). My income from my W-2 is down by around $2000. My refund is down by $3651 so far. FML.
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.
Isn't your state tax liability based on your AGI as a starting point, not your taxable income? That's how my state is. We don't get any itemized deductions on the state taxes.
It is very clear to me that the new tax code is absolutely intended to benefit the very wealthy. It's absurd and will negatively impact society. There is no reason we should be getting a refund or pay less than last year at income level. It makes me so angry.
Year over year, our total income increased $41K, but allowable deductions dropped by $17K, meaning our AGI was $60K higher than last year. However, we only had to pay an incremental $2K in taxes over last year. Essentially our effective tax rate dropped from 23% to 19%. This means we overpaid by $8K since we didn't change our withholdings from 2017, and are getting a refund vs. last year we owed $1K.
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.
Isn't your state tax liability based on your AGI as a starting point, not your taxable income? That's how my state is. We don't get any itemized deductions on the state taxes.
You are correct. My bad. My state taxable amount is $11k higher this year because we aren’t itemizing and the state standard deduction is ridiculous
Isn't your state tax liability based on your AGI as a starting point, not your taxable income? That's how my state is. We don't get any itemized deductions on the state taxes.
You are correct. My bad. My state taxable amount is $11k higher this year because we aren’t itemizing and the state standard deduction is ridiculous
I think my confusion was the deductions on the state taxes. We don't really have deductions; I didn't realize other states do. We have the exemption allowance, but no deductions for stuff like that. Our state taxes are extremely simplified.