Taxes

Yeah, NY, CA and a few other high-tax states got screwed. You can blame your state leaders for that one.

 

I owe a little less than $2,000

2018 was my first year being self-employed and It looks like I wasn't putting enough $$$ towards the quarterly payments.

I'll be a little bit smarter with my money this year

 

Same here.

 

Our family/employment situation has stayed the same for 3 tax seasons. I got back more this year than the previous 2 years. If not for the increase in the child tax credit I would have had a smaller refund than last year.

But, I do have less deducted under the new tax plan as well, this is easy to verify by looking at previous year LES's. I'm happy, overall less money being withheld per paycheck and a larger child tax credit.

I don't like that the new tax codes get painted as entirely bad. A lot of people really benefit, most break even when compared to overall withholding, and some got screwed. I couldn't be happier that the state income tax deduction is gone, it's not the federal governments problem to make up for bad policy at the state level.

 

Yup that’s the crappy part in this. Companies got the big tax cuts and did not share it with their most valuable assets; their employees.

 

Bingo! The new tax laws were designed to screw people in high tax states. The standard deduction and limits suck for me. I paid 1.5 years worth of property taxes in 2017 because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to deduct all of it in 2018. While I see the benefit now, it will be bad in a few years.

 

Refund? I had forgotten how that word was spelled until just now.

 

We got hammered this year. Previously years we were running about even (owe a little to one get back from the other). This year our taxes and income were about the same but we took a big hit due to deduction limits and deductions that were eliminated. Had to make an estimated payment on the 15th to avoid penalties.

 

I took Dave Ramsey's advice and started a home based business last year. My tax preparer said I would have gotten back $1300 but with all the deductions this year I got back $7100. So basically everything I put into the business I got back, plus some.

 

And those state leaders wonder why people are leaving and retirees can't stay there.....

 

Something ain't right...

 

Always got a return. This year changed withholding from 1 to zero and still owed 2,300. New tax law sucks ass!

 

I went from paying $4,500 last year to getting back 2K this year. No complaints here.

 

The standard deduction being raised was great for people who haven’t purchased a home.

But those who have spent years working and saving to afford it. It was nice to be rewarded with some tax incentives. Now they have eliminated tons of deductions for job related expenses that used to be in there. That is the main change for us

 

Yep with caps on write offs (mainly home) and only 4 tax brackets .... wait why do I have a house now? Lol

 

I worked under the table all last year and figured that I would not have to report the income. Bastards still sent me a W-2 and said that just because I sat under my desk it did not take away the requirement for them to report my income to the IRS.

 

The main people getting shafted are the ones in states with high state and local taxes, its unfortunate but the rest of the country shouldn't be subsidizing your states terrible choices. The new standard deduction helped most people as well as the bigger child credits.

Owning a home to write off the mortgage interest hasnt done much for people in a while with how low Mortgage interest rates are. We couldn't even come close to touching the standard married deduction. I haven't been able to use alot of the deductions in past years because as a business owner I didn't have earned income since I haven't put myself on payroll, I just had to pay the 16% self employment tax. This year was the first year getting to file as married so I was excited to get to use some of the deductions, but they didn't help since the standard deduction was doubled. Our property tax only runs about 2200/yr and we have no state tax. So it doesn't really do much.

I was audited last year for the previous 3 yrs of returns, IRS spent 7 months trying to screw me with no lube, everytime I would prove what they asked for, they would change what they wanted or try to find some way to catch me doing something wrong. They were only able to find 1 mistake that made, and I just let them get a little extra on 1 of the other years so they would just leave me alone. I paid them their 5k so they felt like they accomplished something and moved on with my life. If anyone ever wondered if the Audit Defense program is worth it, that 60$ a year was worth every penny having someone represent you to the IRS.

At the end of the day, Taxation is theft. LOL

 

Who do you recommend the audit defenses through?

 

Taxaudit.com was who I used, it was always offered via TurboTax when I would file, but you can purchase it direct.

 

I wish my property/school taxes were only $2200 I get squeezed for a c note a week

 

We got a little bit less back this year compared to last year. We made more this year and got more money back on our pay checks. We also bought a house so.....

 

I pay half of that for 5 acres...but I also have a dirt road, no trash pickup, septic, well water, and a volunteer FD.

 

Almost 1

Almost 1 acre, paved rd,have to pay for trash and sewer. And I absolutely love my well water. There is city water but it sucks. And vol fire dept

Oh I forgot, I have a 28x60 foot garage/shop too

 

We usually get 3-4K back, but not this year. Federal is a whopping $29 refund and we would have owed about $800 in state, but we are getting $300 back since we did a dollar for dollar private tax credit of $1,100. Big disappointment this year. Good news it that I get my raise and bonus at work this week. I'm hoping for better news there.

 

I netted out owing less than usual. The new tax plan lowered rates.

This is the first time in I don’t know when that the ATM didn’t kick in.

 

Sounds nice to me. Convice my wife that 1.8 million neighbors in a 50 mile radius is lame?

 

This should be the goal right here... well done.

 

If you had less taken out of your pay throughout the year then you did have more money in your pocket. Now it was up to you to save it or spend it .

You could always take 10% out of each paycheck and send it to me and I'll reimburse you in full at the end of the year so that you'll get that "I got a big refund" feeling