OT: Tax Refunds

[andcam]

Well I’m sure the Dems want an an increase on the rich. Dems want socialism. They want to bring everyone down. Funny, you say the GOP doesn’t care about the deficit. Kind of like the Dems care about spending and don’t won’t to fund the wall. Dems have never met a spending package they didn’t like.

I think it is a fair criticism of the GOP and the deficit. They had full control of the govt for two years - and after 8 years of slamming Obama for the deficit - and then they run it up further. Do you not think that shows a 180 turnaround on the deficit very very very fast?

 

[andcam]

What do the polls define as the rich? Agreed on your last part, definitely need to cut spending

I am not exactly sure on what they define as rich, but my guess would be the public in general has heard a lot about the top 1 percent accruing huge swaths of wealth the last decade....so I guessing that is built into the psyche....but just my hunch.

 

[MacAttackTiger]

I’m saying people got peanuts on the front end to provide cover for what was really a corporate tax cut. And they sound like they are finding out that they are paying for it on the back end. Time will tell if that’s the case. Seems like we blew up the deficit for Corp stock buy backs.

The deficit is only blown up because of SPENDING, not a reduction in tax revenues.
Let's say you made $100K in income last year and spent all of it, and then you make $90K this year but spend $100K AGAIN....now you are BROKE because of SPENDING not because of your income.

This is false. It’s both. And this admin is making the last look thrifty by comparison of the deficit expansion.

 

[diehardtiger1989]

This is false. It’s both. And this admin is making the last look thrifty by comparison of the deficit expansion.

No, it's not.....even Dave Ramsey disciples understand this basic monetary concept. I would agree with you that it's both if we didn't collect enough taxes for recurring and necessary expenses of running the government, but that's not the case. I blame ALL administrations going back to Bush 1....but most of the blame lies with Congress.

 

[MBRO]

No, it's not.....even Dave Ramsey disciples understand this basic monetary concept. I would agree with you that it's both if we didn't collect enough taxes for recurring and necessary expenses of running the government, but that's not the case. I blame ALL administrations going back to Bush 1....but most of the blame lies with Congress.

Dave Ramsey would tell you that there are only two ways to reduce debt: 1) Decrease spending or 2) Increase revenue. Ideally both. Instead, we’ve done neither.

 

[diehardtiger1989]

Dave Ramsey would tell you that there are only two ways to reduce debt: 1) Decrease spending or 2) Increase revenue. Ideally both. Instead, we’ve done neither.

No, Dave Ramsey would tell you to use every cent possible of your income to pay down all of your debt and live on what you make after that.......it's basic common sense but obviously doesn't apply to Congress since its OPM. (FYI....he tells people to stop going out to eat, drive an old car, buy used clothing, etc until you pay off your debt) I'm not a big fan of Ramsey but our government could learn something from him.

 

[tigertommy1]

Unless you are a small business owner and are talking about deducting it as a business expense

If you used an online software it's dated. If you used a cpa you need a new one.

https://money.usnews.com/money/pers...les/tax-deductions-that-disappeared-this-year

For normal w2 employees it was eliminated

I do own my own business - actually a couple.

And yes I was still allowed the home office deduction and the mileage. The post I replied to said those were no longer - I was merely pointing out those weren’t done away with entirely

And I made more and my taxes went down in 2018 due to the lower pass thru rate

 

[MacAttackTiger]

Dave Ramsey would tell you that there are only two ways to reduce debt: 1) Decrease spending or 2) Increase revenue. Ideally both. Instead, we’ve done neither.

No, Dave Ramsey would tell you to use every cent possible of your income to pay down all of your debt and live on what you make after that.......it's basic common sense but obviously doesn't apply to Congress since its OPM. (FYI....he tells people to stop going out to eat, drive an old car, buy used clothing, etc until you pay off your debt) I'm not a big fan of Ramsey but our government could learn something from him.

The now crazy/scary part is that Congress is more radical and marginal on both sides than 90% of this board.

 

[padtigers]

Dave Ramsey would tell you that there are only two ways to reduce debt: 1) Decrease spending or 2) Increase revenue. Ideally both. Instead, we’ve done neither.

Politicians are great at padding their personal pockets. They are equally as good at spending someone else's money on government "needs". I honestly think a single parent working 2 jobs while living check to check could do a better job managing funds than ANY government official.

 

[MBRO]

No, Dave Ramsey would tell you to use every cent possible of your income to pay down all of your debt and live on what you make after that.......it's basic common sense but obviously doesn't apply to Congress since its OPM. (FYI....he tells people to stop going out to eat, drive an old car, buy used clothing, etc until you pay off your debt) I'm not a big fan of Ramsey but our government could learn something from him.

He tells people to have yard sales, get second jobs delivering pizzas, etc.

Reducing spending is a big part but increasing income is absolutely something he preaches.

 

[tigermg83]

I file jointly with my wife and have a kid. My wife got a promotion and we made an extra $15,000 this year. We paid about $300 less in taxes this year and getting back about the same as 2017. I do my own taxes online. I am no expert but I am happy. We get a little more per pay period and not much changed when tax time rolled around.

 

[jbeacher]

I have no idea. Still waiting on my k-1.

 

[firegiver]

I file jointly with my wife and have a kid. My wife got a promotion and we made an extra $15,000 this year. We paid about $300 less in taxes this year and getting back about the same as 2017. I do my own taxes online. I am no expert but I am happy. We get a little more per pay period and not much changed when tax time rolled around.

For me, we got a better return, but we earned less this year because I lost out on my retention bonus. which was substantial last year. Im not expert either but with two kids we got back some money where as last year with one we paid.

Now, thats just my experience and i do know that people who heavily deduct are screwed.

 

[1Clemson]

That was part of the idea behind the SALT cap. The theory was that high tax states were being partially funded through federal tax deductions.

Now we are subsidizing a couple with absolutely no real deductions or dependents by giving them a $24k deduction. Same with ‘families’ with 6-8 kids. Actually itemizing made folks at least justify the subsidy.

My tax paid increased on basically same income due to loss of deductibility for SALT, IPTAY, an elderly parent and some business expenses.

 

[scotchtiger]

Now we are subsidizing a couple with absolutely no real deductions or dependents by giving them a $24k deduction. Same with ‘families’ with 6-8 kids. Actually itemizing made folks at least justify the subsidy.

My tax paid increased on basically same income due to loss of deductibility for SALT, IPTAY, an elderly parent and some business expenses.

The increased standard deduction doesn't help me either. I'm still itemizing. Pretty sure that was a middle class break, which is what the people wanted.

 

[IcelandTiger]

just filed

Standard deduction for the first time (always itemized before this year). Almost no mortgage left

Made more money in 2018 than any other year, lowest effective tax rate in years (2.25% lower effective tax rate than 2017), and paid lower total tax than last year.

 

[CU Alumnus]

For those that have filed, how are you doing on your returns this year? I haven’t filed yet, but just about everyone I have asked says it went down or significantly down. A few have said they owe for the first time in their life. Yikes!

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/08/average-tax-refund-down-1158440

Came out a little better. Normally isn't huge and I did sell some stocks for a gain (long time holding, over the life of them they didn't do much) so that cost me a little bit. My take-home pay also went up a little bit because of lower taxes.

A lot of the ones that owe more actually took a hit because the new tax law capped State Tax deductions at $10K. So if you lived in a high-tax state, you can now only deduct a part of your state taxes. It was a lost deduction, not an increased tax rate. So the real problem is that the person's state had insane income taxes.

I cannot fathom owing the state 5 figures in income tax as a private citizen.

This is such a condescending statement. I understand the point but most would rather get money back rather than pay in no matter if you are rich or poor.

Ideally but the last thing I want to do is owe money, so I usually don't screw around with it too much.

 

[CU Alumnus]

The increased standard deduction doesn't help me either. I'm still itemizing. Pretty sure that was a middle class break, which is what the people wanted.

Every time I try to itemize I come out better with the standard deduction. It's usually pretty close but the standard deduction is the better deal for me.

I use Turbotax and just do what it tells me.

 

[scotchtiger]

I cannot fathom owing the state 5 figures in income tax as a private citizen.

Using some quick math, I figure that once you hit $150K I’m income, you would owe $10K in SC state tax. That doesn’t even take into account property taxes, so the number is probably closer to $115K. So there are a lot of households out there that this would apply to.

The lower rates and expanded tiers more than offset this for SC residents though. That might not be true for high tax blue states.

 

[scotchtiger]

just filed

Standard deduction for the first time (always itemized before this year). Almost no mortgage left

Made more money in 2018 than any other year, lowest effective tax rate in years (2.25% lower effective tax rate than 2017), and paid lower total tax than last year.

#winning

 

[CU Alumnus]

Using some quick math, I figure that once you hit $150K I’m income, you would owe $10K in SC state tax. That doesn’t even take into account property taxes, so the number is probably closer to $115K. So there are a lot of households out there that this would apply to.

The lower rates and expanded tiers more than offset this for SC residents though. That might not be true for high tax blue states.

Damn - lower than I thought.

The higher-tax states (NY, CA) were where this seemed to hit. There may be another piece to this that I'm missing.

Or they set up their taxes to owe a shitload at tax time rather than pay it through the year. So they owed something like $20-30K in STATE taxes that they were able (in the past) to deduct from their FEDERAL taxes. I think. Thinking through it, it still seems like something is missing here.

Whatever it was, they went from getting back around $5-10K to owing $10K+ at tax time.

As a business I could definitely see owing that much.

 

[1Clemson]

Using some quick math, I figure that once you hit $150K I’m income, you would owe $10K in SC state tax. That doesn’t even take into account property taxes, so the number is probably closer to $115K. So there are a lot of households out there that this would apply to.

The lower rates and expanded tiers more than offset this for SC residents though. That might not be true for high tax blue states.

Depends on the other deductions that may have been lost.