How did your taxes turn out?

[dmc]

Well I decided to take a look. On my 2017 tax return I got around $2,000 back, 2018 I had to send in $2,200. My overall tax, the only thing that really matters, was $2,000 higher in 2018. But my adjusted gross income was $13,000 higher.

Since I’m in the 24% bracket for anything that I withdrawal from my IRA, it looks about right to me.

This year if I take anything out of my IRA I’ll have them withhold 20% so I don’t have to pay a penalty.

I would rather send them a check for a couple of thousand than have to wait for them to refund my money.

[mschrisgo2]

Well, my AGI was $4000 less in 2018 than 2017, but I paid $2780 more in federal taxes for the year2018. so the "Tax Break" didn't do me any good.

[jp1]

While all of our anecdotes are interesting, they aren't particularly informative of anything. I'm moderately curious to know where, of the roughly $190 billion per year the new tax law reduced taxes, the money went. Sure a lot of middle class schlubs like me got a $1k or $2k reduction (even williamsmith seemed to be getting enough to buy an extra bottle of gin every once in a while, although some, particularly those who own houses in high property value/tax places like the NYC metro area, the northern CA bay area and the like saw increases) but of the massive tax break how much of it actually went to middle class people? And were the decreases equal across different income bands or did higher income folks get a bigger or smaller decrease? My guess, strictly a hunch based on the obviously apparent priorities of the people who wrote the bill, is that the bill made our tax code flatter and less progressive. Where the R's screwed up was in modifying the witholding tables.

Although the theory that people'd be stoked to see bigger paychecks makes sense, the reality that became the accepted story was that of people like the Pennsylvania teacher that saw an extra $2/paycheck or whatever the number was. Not big enough to make this bill a successful issue in the 2018 midterms for republicans. The payoff would've taken longer but the Republicans, in hindsight, would've been better off if withholding had remained the same and then this year everyone suddenly got a bounteous refund. Personally I noticed the decreased witholding but it wasn't enough to change my life in any meaningful way. I just put it into savings. But if I'd suddenly gotten a $2000 refund this year instead of breaking even (for years I have always gotten a small refund from the state and owe a small amount to the IRS which almost always balance out) I might have been inspired to splurge on something. Instead that money is responsibly earning interest and I haven't done anything to help goose the economy with my new riches.

[Teacher Terry]

Even though our income went down my husband doesn’t want to reduce our withholding because he wants to make sure we don’t owe. I am doing some consulting although I doubt I will make anywhere near what I did teaching.

[iris lilies]

We just got a letter from the IRS saying that a document was missing from our tax calculation. Oops. Our tax preparer, who we called today, admitted that they did not include it, it had to do with the ACA subsidies, so I would imagine this could substantially change our tax bill. Stay tuned.

[iris lilies]

Today’s update from our tax preparer: he is going to redo our taxes and make our income slightly less by forgoing a couple of deductions. That is so we can qualify for the ACA subsidies. I guess there will not be a bottom line change to what we owe. Comparative facts are:


Our income in 2018: $39,000, we paid $477 in federal taxes

Our income in 2017::$30,000, we paid $619 in federal taxes

So the 2018 tax reform helped this middle-class household.

[Teacher Terry]

Wow a little over a 100 compared to what the wealthy get. Plus our deficit is exploding.

[Gardnr]

Here is the result: The average American doesn't win. The corporations however, are not singin' the blues. Theirs is permanent! Yup, we the people......... https://www.thebalance.com/trump-s-t...ts-you-4113968

The Act cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% beginning in 2018. The corporate cuts are permanent, while the individual changes expire at the end of 2025.
Individual Income Tax Rate

The Act lowers tax rates but keeps the seven income tax brackets.

These rates revert in 2026.
The Act created the following chart. The highest tax bracket is $500,000 for single people and $600,000 for married couples. Beginning in 2018, they pay a 37% rate after exemptions and deductions. That's lower than the 2017 rate of 39.6%.

Income Tax Rate		Income Levels for Those Filing As:
2017	2018-2025	Single	Married-Joint
10%	10%	$0-$9,525	$0-$19,050
15%	12%	$9,525-$38,700	$19,050-$77,400
25%	22%	$38,700-$82,500	$77,400-$165,000
28%	24%	$82,500-$157,500	$165,000-$315,000
33%	32%	$157,500-$200,000	$315,000-$400,000
33%-35%	35%	$200,000-$500,000	$400,000-$600,000
39.6%	37%	$500,000+	$600,000+

The income levels rise each year with inflation. As a result, more people are subject to the highest bracket than they would have been under the old method. By 2025, 8.9% of taxpayers will pay more than they would have under the previous tax law. In 2018, only 4.8% of households paid more.

[Alan]

Wow a little over a 100 compared to what the wealthy get.

Basic math shows that her effective tax rate went from 2.06% in 2017 to 1.22% in 2018. Once you've established that fact, you can extrapolate outwards to reflect the higher income in 2018 and the possibility that the increased income may also increase the effective rate a tiny bit and still come up with a real savings more in the <$400 range and a close to 50 percent reduction to the effective rate.

Another point to consider is that we're not yet taxed on wealth but rather on income, so I'm not sure how you might make a factual comparison to "what the wealthy get".

[iris lilies]

...Another point to consider is that we're not yet taxed on wealth...

Not yet anyway, not until Elizabeth Warren is in the White House and can lead her social justice warriors to confiscating my assets.