2018 Tax Code Changes Help or Hurt?

[buster]

I knew going in my taxes would likely go up with the 2018 tax code changes. Living in a HCOL state with expensive property taxes and high state taxes, the SALT deduction cap of $10k was definitely going to hurt.

After running through my 2018 taxes, it looks like the feds owe me $388. I decided to plug the numbers into my 2017 program to see what it would have been. Had there not been tax changes, the feds would have owed me $2,607. At the end of the day the tax code changes cost me $2,219, all so some rich jackholes and corporations could save over a trillion dollars. Good times...

Curious how everyone else did.

[jelloshots4all]

I'm finishing mine tomorrow. I had extra taken out of my check to offset this "wonderful" tax plan. So hopefully I won't owe.

[justme]

I'm getting a smaller refund, but they withheld a bit less. Pretty much a wash for me. I'll have to look up last year's to get specifics.

[Gardening Grandma]

We haven’t itemized for years; I won’t know details til we get home and I actually file, but a preliminary look suggests a wash

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2019 16:13:54 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

We haven’t itemized for years; I won’t know details til we get home and I actually file, but a preliminary look suggests a wash

Just curious what would have increased for you to make it a wash?  If you didn't itemize before and they doubled the standard deduction and lowered all the tax brackets you'd almost have to come out ahead no? 

[Gardening Grandma]

Jan 26, 2019 16:34:40 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jan 26, 2019 16:13:54 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

We haven’t itemized for years; I won’t know details til we get home and I actually file, but a preliminary look suggests a wash

Just curious what would have increased for you to make it a wash?  If you didn't itemize before and they doubled the standard deduction and lowered all the tax brackets you'd almost have to come out ahead no? 

I need to crunch the numbers.

[Deleted]

Mine looks to be about $2,000 more on AGI of about $4,000 more but since that AGI difference is mostly capital gains, that's a pretty big impact.  And, since my state pretty much uses Federal Taxable Income as a base with a few minor adjustments, State goes up, too.

Fortunately,  I was not hit by the $10K SALT limitation.  I feel really bad for people who were hit with that- you make house purchase decisions on the impact after-tax and suddenly you can't deduct a big chunk of property taxes.

I'm Single, which doesn't help-   I can easily itemize with just mortgage interest and SALT and then I have a pile of charitable deductions.  I can hit the new standard deduction with the items that can't be "bunched" into other years.  So, no help there.  Lost Personal Exemption.  Lost Miscellaneous deduction (I had investment advisory fees.)   The decreased rates don't make up for it.  Oh- and my Medicare premiums will double this year because of IRMAA surcharges.



 

[Deleted]

Also, I would put the blame on the politicians in the high tax state that you live in rather than the tax code changes.  How about pushing the state legislature and governor to learn to live on less and bring the taxes more in line with other states, or to make other fundamental changes to the tax codes to change how taxes are collected.  More importantly, the current democratic house will probably determine that anyone that has SALT taxes greater than $10,000 is too rich and will raise your tax rates and consider a wealth tax because you obviously own a home of greater value than you should and it is obviously your fault that, fill in the blank, has less money than you.  Now, the republicans will just borrow the money and promise you that someone else will pay it back some day.  Neither group today shows much interest in actually spending less, so I am not sure that there is much difference between the two.

[Deleted]

We haven't itemized since DH and I married.  That doubled the standard deduction without doubling the deductible expenses like interest deduction, etc.  

So it has helped us.  I was skeptical at first so when withholding went down $164 a month, I saved it in case we needed it for taxes in April.  We won't.  It looks like we will be getting an additional $700 back, which is a comfortable amount.  $50 more in my paycheck wouldn't have done anything.  

I guess the total savings is around $3000.  We are in the $85,000 income range before deductions like FSA, health insurance, retirement contributions, supplemental retirement savings, etc.  

I'll take it, but I never thought our tax bill was too high. You get what you pay for.  Alabama is proof of that.  

[TheOtherMe]

While my 2018 taxes are ready to be filed as soon as two forms are finalized, I have not run this set of numbers through last year's software.  I plan to do that in the near future.  

Losing the standard deduction cost me money because I was right at the standard deduction amount for my itemized deductions.  

State taxes look to be higher this year because the state legislature made some changes but they are not effective until 2019 returns.  

The state I live in has cut spending for the most vulnerable in terms of dire cuts to Medicaid, mental health and cuts to education.  I would happily pay more state taxes to have better funding for those programs.

ETA:  Correction  I lost the personal exemption not the standard deduction

[Deleted]

Jan 26, 2019 19:56:47 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

While my 2018 taxes are ready to be filed as soon as two forms are finalized, I have not run this set of numbers through last year's software.  I plan to do that in the near future.  

Losing the standard deduction cost me money because I was right at the standard deduction amount for my itemized deductions.  

State taxes look to be higher this year because the state legislature made some changes but they are not effective until 2019 returns.  

The state I live in has cut spending for the most vulnerable in terms of dire cuts to Medicaid, mental health and cuts to education.  I would happily pay more state taxes to have better funding for those programs.

I'm not a tax person so I am lost.  How did you lose the standard deduction?  Is it the AMT or something?

Losing itemization because of the doubling of the standard deduction seems more common.

So it will be interesting how your experience is the exact opposite.

[TheOtherMe]

Wrong words.  Personal exemption.  I lost my personal exemption of over $3000.  

I now use the standard deduction.  I'm single so nothing is doubled.  

I lost in this process because of the loss of personal exemptions.

[dogmom]

Started our taxes yesterday, but am waiting on investment 1099's.  We, at first blush are getting more back than anticipated.  (We paid last year due to some capital gains).

[imanangel]

I have no clue how the new tax code will affect us. I don't do my own taxes because it makes my brain hurt. I just know, for the last few years, we have had to pay pretty big tax bills. 

[jkapp]

I came out ahead...I lost the ability to itemize and lost the personal exemption, but the between the standard deduction and lowered tax rates (the thing that everyone seems to forget about) I came out about $1000 ahead.

[Miss Tequila]

Jan 27, 2019 9:03:12 GMT -5 imanangel said:

I have no clue how the new tax code will affect us. I don't do my own taxes because it makes my brain hurt. I just know, for the last few years, we have had to pay pretty big tax bills. 

Do you have significant outside investments? Are you unferwithilding at work? I sold a house and have rental income so I do have significant outside income that I have to pay fairly substantial tax estimates in. But if all you have is W-2 income with some interest and dividends, you just need to fix your withholding at work

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I don't know yet. The calculators say we're going to become one of those families YM loves to hate.

But then I've read a lot of employers screwed up withholdings and that makes the calculators inaccurate.



I gave up and decided to be surprised.

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2019 11:45:04 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I don't know yet. The calculators say we're going to become one of those families YM loves to hate.

But then I've read a lot of employers screwed up withholdings and that makes the calculators inaccurate.



I gave up and decided to be surprised.

Those kinds of surprises never work out well for me. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Jan 27, 2019 11:56:41 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

Jan 27, 2019 11:45:04 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I don't know yet. The calculators say we're going to become one of those families YM loves to hate.

But then I've read a lot of employers screwed up withholdings and that makes the calculators inaccurate.



I gave up and decided to be surprised.

Those kinds of surprises never work out well for me. 

Not us either but I was going insane. We've never had anything. worth itemizing and tend to over withold so I figure worst case we go back to breaking even. I'd be shocked if we owed a significant sum.

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2019 12:23:39 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Jan 27, 2019 11:56:41 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

Those kinds of surprises never work out well for me. 

Not us either but I was going insane. We've never had anything. worth itemizing and tend to over withold so I figure worst case we go back to breaking even. I'd be shocked if we owed a significant sum.

With two kids it's pretty hard to owe anything making under 100K unless you had nothing withheld and no pre-tax savings money coming out.  I'd forget the calculators and just plug the numbers into the software.  Your taxes sound simple so it wouldn't take long. 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

We knew in September we were going to owe a buttload of money.  It hurt us in the long run.

[pooks]

Our taxes went up, not sure exactly what the number will be.  The elimination of the misc. itemized deductions, the personal exemptions, and capping the SALT deductions all hurt us.  I know we are in a minority, as the bill helps most people a little.  Next year is even worse because DD turns 17 at the end of 2019.  

To add to that, since we will be taking the standard deduction this year, we didn't withhold enough.  Different issue, but we will owe for the first time ever.  

[lynnerself]

All I know so far is we probably won't be able to itemize this year. Last year's was around. $23000. So waiting to see if lower rates off set loss of personal exemptions.

I had a major freak out, until I realized that there was still a way to itemize on the State return even if not on the federal.

[wvugurl26]

Mine would be harder to figure out since I had a different state for 2018. I could try to pull DH's. I think our withholding went down by a tiny bit and I'm expecting maybe $1k back. It was certainly no big savings for us.

The SALT cap really sucks for us.

[jeffreymo]

I used exact data from the 2017 return to complete the 2018 return.

Here are the lines from each return I used to compare.

Taxable Income
2017 line 43
2018 line 10

Tax after credits
2017 line 56
2018 line 15


Our taxable income decreased by $1,271 and our tax after credits decreased by $4,650.

Our state tax is unaffected by the federal changes.

[jelloshots4all]

Tax laws DEFINETLY HURT me!! Luckily, I did withhold extra every paycheck, or writing that check to the IRS would have been painful!! Over a $10K swing. UGH!!

But My taxes are done- haven't received my 1099 for a company stock investment, but I used the paperwork they send me to estimate it. Went a little high on the dividends estimate so I'm not worried.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

When the tax changes were passed, we started sending $200/month more to the feds. I hope that's enough to cover everything. The past few years, we've ended up with at least a $2000 refund from the feds. Yes, I know Phil disapproves, but our rental expenses were so variable that we couldn't quite figure out how to get close to zero--we either owed $3500 or were getting back at least $2000. I preferred the later. I'm sure we're going to have a higher liability; it's just a matter of how much. 

[imanangel]

Jan 27, 2019 11:41:09 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

Jan 27, 2019 9:03:12 GMT -5 imanangel said:

I have no clue how the new tax code will affect us. I don't do my own taxes because it makes my brain hurt. I just know, for the last few years, we have had to pay pretty big tax bills. 

Do you have significant outside investments? Are you unferwithilding at work? I sold a house and have rental income so I do have significant outside income that I have to pay fairly substantial tax estimates in. But if all you have is W-2 income with some interest and dividends, you just need to fix your withholding at work

We had a rental property that we sold last year, so that got us a huge tax bill. The other years, I guess we were not withholding enough... even though it felt like we were.

[bean29]

I haven't started my taxes yet, but my DH is an insurance agent. His company just sent out a message that says:

The U.S. Treasury today issued final regulations and other guidance on a provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that allows owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships, trusts, and S corporations to deduct up to 20 percent of their qualified business income on their taxes.
Today’s final rules cleared up lingering doubts about whether insurance agents qualify for the full 20 percent deduction for their 2018 taxes and for years going forward until 2025 under President Donald Trump’s tax law. They do qualify.

Woo Hoo.  That should make up for lost State Income and Property Tax Deductions.

[shanendoah]

I need to look more closely at the numbers when I get home, but pretty certain we missed the SALT cap by $3k or so this year. (We don't have state income tax, though we do have a fairly high sales tax.) Oddly, if we'd hit the SALT cap, itemizing would have worked for us, though just barely, with $13k in mortgage interest and about $1500 in charitable contributions.

I haven't run last year's numbers through, but I am guessing the changes "hurt" us - we paid under $900 to the feds last year. I didn't change anything on the withholdings, and straight income based taxes this year would have us owing $1350. And while I got a raise, it wasn't that much of one.
However, I took an early distribution from my 403(b) in order to have earnest money to buy a house, and that has killed us. Jumped us to the over $100k tax brackets (about 22%). That combined with the 10% penalty for early distribution means that even though they withheld about 20% for taxes, we underpaid. Looks like we'll owe $7k this year. I'm actually kind of interested in running this year's numbers through last year's forms and see what happens.