Some will no doubt continue to swallow the KGOP republican spin on their ENRICH THE RICH tax screw job, but they will have to be absolute fools to do so.

I shop at a local country store and the owner says she is happy with her business under Trump. I don't know if she did her taxes yet though.

For sure though Trump didn't do individual filers any favors.

Most probably the Reps pushing the millionaire's tax cuts told him that middle income people would see a bigger paycheck, but purposefully neglected to explain the details to him. Everyone knows that details are far beyond Trump's ability to understand. He's probably never ever sat down and figured his own taxes. He's always had someone to cook his books. So while we should not excuse him for his ignorance, we should rather blame him for being served by duplicitous lying incompetent assholes.

drumpf didn't give a shit is the bottom line. All he cared about is cutting his and his repug friends taxes, period the end. The rest was just his Adderall fueled lies to the base, like Mexico will pay for the wall, drugs will be cheaper, medical care will be cheaper, etc. etc.. He knew he didn't give a damn about them, but he'd certainly never tell them, and he'd never ask for anything to help them, they are unimportant as they don't have the power or the $$ that PUtin had and that, other than himself,, if the only audience he truly cares about.

I look to peer a little more deeply into the causes and conditions of an outcome.

Paul Ryan, Steve Mnuchin, and Wilbur Ross drawing up this tax scam. I hope that the state of N.Y. nails him for tax fraud and money laundering. Bankrupt the s.o.b. He certainly isn't as rich as he claims if even Deutche Bank wouldn't loan him money at the start of his campaign. Putin was his last resort for money. I'm hoping for justice, or karma.

Paul Ryan knew for sure. Mnuchin and Ross probably did too. The IRS director needs to be hauled B4 congress to explain. I knew that the tax tables had been rigged early last year. I think that I read it in a post here on DU. Did the IRS ever issue a public announcement? I don't think so.

he had absolutely no part in the sausage making.

The specifics of this scam go to the scumbags in congress.

Last year was my first full year of only receiving retirement income. We were very conservative about pulling money out of my 403B and had taxes withheld when we had to pull out $$ for a new roof and for a vacation and have taxes taken out of a small monthly pension I get. According to a notice I got from SS, I think we'll be fine, but I will stay concerned until I get the final tax form from my pension and can see the results.

took about $75/month from my federal withholdings and switched it to my monthly disbursement. It's not something that is going to break me but it is something that pizzed me off.

Trump has no impact on what those places do and how different companies handle your withholdings.

I have been getting the exact same pension since 2010 with the exact same federal withholding amount.
Something changed, I didn't change anything. Who else would I blame?

Didn't the Trump tax scam eliminate the W-4's for withholding for 2018 and leave the withholding up to the corporations and businesses?

We have very strong control over withholding.

Now if you massively under withhold, the IRS will direct your employer to increase it, but that's rather unusual.

The withholdings tables were updated to reflect the new tax rates and elimination of personal deductions.

However, the actual impact to your taxes greatly depends on your situation (number of dependents, married or not, etc) so it is possible that the standard withholdings are not appropriate for anyone's given situation.

The IRS sent erroneous with holdings tables to some employers, this may effect several million taxpayers. This will be a nasty surprise to many workers.

I have not read about the tax cuts changing the withholding in the way people are discussing in this thread, but I do think the change in deductions could make for smaller refunds or in some cases payments.

First of all, tax refunds are stupid, you should not be aiming to get an income tax refund, it's not smart. You're giving an interest free loan to the federal government to use your money if you're getting a refund. I try to make it so I get a very small refund so I at least won't owe. Smarter people than I withhold much less and always owe as much as possible, they buy CDs that can be cashed to pay their tax bill in April. So in essence they are reversing it and getting an interest free loan from the government with which they are earning interest with small short term investments.

But, climbing down from my soap box, I know that's not how peoples' minds work in this country. Many people rely on tax refunds for a lot of big purchases, like maybe a down payment on a car, or a new hot water heater for the house. A lot of people use it to just catch up on their bills. Smaller refunds are going to cause outrage for workers, it's going to be stressful for families.

The Trump tax cuts were small for working people, Obama's tax cuts were bigger. Obama did a terrible job of advertising his tax cuts.

If you owe over $1000? People would want to avoid that but otherwise what you said.

People who generally get refunds are owing thousands. Even retired folks. I’m really scared, but going to start mine today and see. I use H&R Block software. The media needs to catch on to this.

for Trump, but never again. They are really ticked off.

I am retired and get two very small pensions. I don't have any money withheld from them because, well, they're so small if I had anything withheld I might as well not even get a check. (I'm only exaggerating a little here. One pension is $180 a month.) I also get Social Security of $981 a month and don't have anything withheld for taxes. Again, it's not enough to live on and if I have taxes withheld it'll be even worse. I took money from my IRA for the first time, even though it wasn't required yet. (I'm not 70 and one-half years old yet.) The part that infuriates me is that the alimony I receive is taxable. The new tax law with regard to alimony is only for people who are divorced after Dec. 31, 2018. Plus, from what I read, in order to make any alimony I may receive in 2019 nontaxable, whether it's arrearage monies I receive (he currently is in arrears by $12,000) or he starts paying again, I have to go to court and get a new order stating it's nontaxable to me. Almost all of my Social Security is taxed. The state taxes my two small pensions.

With this scenario I now owe $3400 to the IRS. It just infuriates me when I read about how the rich people can afford to find all the loopholes and are extremely comfortable financially even if they did have to pay more taxes, and people like me who have worked all their lives and are now 70 or more have to keep trying to find a way to live on next to nothing.

With regard to the new tax law, could someone explain to me why anyone who is receiving alimony should have to pay taxes on it just because they were divorced before 2019? How is this equitable? Why couldn't they give everyone who receives alimony a tax break? Why the arbitrary date? Let's face it, most of alimony is for women. It's one more way we get screwed in addition to being low wage earners most of our lives.

No wonder people get angry about taxes. And yes, I do believe there are going to be a lot more angry taxpayers when they start doing their taxes. This tax bill did absolutely nothing for the middle class.

I have to pay my ex $2,400 each month.
That's money I can't use, so why should I have to incur the income taxes on it?
My ex has to pay income taxes on the $2,400, but she also gets to claim the
mortgage interest deduction and the property tax deduction.

The tax law that changed the spousal support, should have never changed.
Any monies that get paid to the spouse for support should be tax deductible,
while being taxable for the spouse, since it is income.

Alimony is almost always awarded to the higher of the wage earners in an attempt to equalize incomes. That's the basis behind alimony. As I said, in most cases it's men paying alimony to women because of the inequality of incomes of women.

If we're going to argue that people who make more money should pay more taxes (a Dem argument most of the time), then why in this particular situation do you think you should be allowed to pay less taxes by deducting your alimony payments while I have to lessen the alimony I do receive by the taxes I have to pay on it? Also, my ex-husband's Social Security is based on higher wages than I had, so he'll get more Social Security than I do. A lot more.

Why should I have to pay for your taxes?
You're the one getting the money, you pay for the taxes.
Or find a tax deductible instrument so that you can write it off.

When the alimony figures were calculated, the taxes paid were taken into account to determine the amount. If you switch which party pays the taxes, you are effectively changing the amount of money transfer between the two parties.

However, for someone getting divorced after the law goes into effect, the alimony will be calculated with the new tax structure in mind.

I've read a lot of case law on alimony and it rarely if ever speaks of the tax consequences. I had someone whom I believed was a very good divorce attorney and had many discussions with her, but over the course of dealing with her realized that she wouldn't have considered the tax consequences if i wouldn't have brought it up.

Also, at least in those two states, The judge or mediator plays the biggest role in determining the alimony amount. I’ve never known any of them to be unaware of the tax issues.

I used to write software that was used to help calculate appropriate alimony and child support amounts for divorce. The alimony side had a lot more flexibility that the child support side, but tax consequences were certainly accounted for.

So someone whose divorce is final on or after January 1, 2019 doesn't have to pay taxes on it, but someone whose divorce was final on December 31, 2018 does? If it's income to one recipient and not income for another depending on the day of their divorce, that makes no sense.

Someone who has an active spousal support order has to go to the court and file a motion to modify the originalorder to say it's not taxable to the payee. It just doesn't automatically change without a new order filed. That should clog the dockets even more than they already are and of course cost more money.

is going to have the forms available for us? I do my own taxes by just following the instructions. I used to get the forms at my local library, I guess I can print them out on line.

I don't like paying for something I can do myself. I SMFH when my Trumper friends took their 1040EZ's to tax preparers. Being retired my income pretty much stays the same. We did get a cost of living increase for SS this year.

Places like H&R Block get rich off of people because many, many people are intimidated by doing taxes. I know so many people who just pay someone to do them who have very simple tax situations. They've made people believe that they will be thrown in jail if there's a mistake on their taxes. Fear will sell anything.

I used Turbo Tax when I lived in Europe, because the tax laws were quite complicated for my situation. But even if I use a 1040 now, I do my own taxes.

Never had a problem or a glitch. In fact, the IRS sometimes paid me more in refunds than I requested.

In order for the RepubliCONS to shrink Form 1040 into a (very big 2-sided) postcard, they added Schedules 1 thru Schedule 6 to provide the lines that were removed from from the old Form 1040. That's their idea of tax simplification. MAGA!

And don't look for Form 1040 EZ or anything like that --- that's all gone. MAGA!

For convenience, links to Form 1040 and the 6 schedules all together:

Schedule 1, Additional Income and Adjustments to Income
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s1.pdf
Schedule 2, Tax
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s2.pdf
Schedule 3, Nonrefundable Credits
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s3.pdf
Schedule 4, Other Taxes
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s4.pdf
Schedule 5, Other Payments and Refundable Credits
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s5.pdf
Schedule 6, Foreign Address and Third Party Designee
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s6.pdf

Form 1040: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
. . . ***Remember to scroll down past the blank half page to see page 2 of it

This year’s taxes will be about the same as last year’s. I got a fairly good raise in the last couple months of the tax year so the dollar value I have to pay is higher, but it looks like if I made the same amount I’d pay the same tax.

My Trumper brother is a different story. He’s a truck driver, and relied on the Great Truckef Loophole of Uncompensated Employee Expenses to get his taxes down to a reasonable number. That no longer exists, so he’s going to get hanged out to dry by the Trump Tax Scam. But Trump’s own taxes have been slashed, and that’s what’s important.

BTW now Trump can never show his tax returns. If people ever see Trump’s taxes before and after he cut them, they’ll build a bastinado platform, a pillory and a guillotine...and put Trump in all three.

... their deduction list.

Right now people might as well just take the standard and call it a wrap.

The IRS is guessing 95% will take standard deduction cause itemized deductions wont be enough for now on

no taxes. They did screw me bad when I got rid of stocks a couple yrs back.

...but we're retired, too. Our basic income has been pretty steady. What confused it for me was that I reached 70-1/2 last year, so had to start withdrawing from my 401k and IRAs. Plus I had itemized deductions that exceeded the standard deduction.

What will hurt people is the shell game of standard deduction and personal exemptions.

This year the standard deduction is up to $24,000 from $15,000 last year (not the ballyhooed "double" ). On the surface that looks good, but the personal exemptions have been eliminated.

So, for us we went from $15,000 + 4,050 +4,050 (total of 24,100) to just $24,000. No big deal for us, but for a family of four it was over $31,000 and for a family of six it was over $39,000! That's a huge difference.

In 2017 Married Filing Jointly standard deduction was $12,700.
If both of you are 65 and over, add 2*1250 = $2500, for a total of $15,200.
2 personal exemptions of $4050 each = $8,100.
Standard deduction + personal exemptions: $15,200 + $8,100 = $23,300

========================================================

In 2018 Married Filing Jointly standard deduction was $24,000.
If both of you are 65 and over, add 2*1350 = $2600, for a total of $26,600.
2 personal exemptions of $Zip each = $Zip.
Standard deduction + personal exemptions: $26,600.

=======================================================

On family of 4 or 6, the dependent exemptions are gone, but the child tax credit increased by $1,000 each (equivalent in tax benefit to a $8333 exemption in the 12% tax bracket, or $4545 in the 22% tax bracket, $4167 in the 24% tax bracket, and so on).

...but from the description thought it was for everybody.

We're both over 65 so got that little bump in the std. ded.

I just noticed that in your #26.

You sound like exactly my situation (besides the itemized exceeding standard deduction), I'm also over 65, and no dependent children. The only difference is I'm single.

I get hurt by the tax change because my itemized deductions exceed my standard deduction, both before and after TCJA.

2017:
Itemized deductions: $30,000 (well beyond the S.D.)
Personal exemption: $4,050
Total: $34,050

2018:
Itemized deductions: $30,000 (well beyond the S.D.)
Personal exemption: $Zip
Total: $30,000

In short, other factors being the same, I will have $4,050 more taxable income in 2018 than in 2017. My tax preparer confirmed this (he did a 2017 vs. 2018 look-ahead for all his clients).

For people whose itemized deductions exceeded the standard deduction in 2017 but not in 2018, it gets more complicated... Some will be helped, more will be hurt

EDITED last sentence: rather than -> but not in

To make it look like the tax breaks were helping everyone, the W-4 deductions were altered. If you had a steady income, claimed 3 exemptions for your family, you got "X" amount of money withheld. Now to make things look brighter for you, they took "X" and subtracted $15-$20 to give you more take home pay. But, if you fall into the same tax bracket as the year before, you will still owe the proper percentage, say 27%. You will have not gotten as much taken out, so you will get less back. Or if you preferred not to get a big return every year, you could end up owing taxes.

Also, the standard deduction (filing jointly) was raised to $24,000, up from $12,500. But, the individual deductions of $4500 were eliminated. For a married couple with one or no children they will see a little more in return. More than one child and you are losing money. I am not sure how "Earned Child Care Credit" works, but I had three kids and never used it, so I think that would apply to lower incomes, or two income families with children in Day Care.

In the long run, I think there are going to be a lot of disappointed people when they file their taxes. But, they can take comfort that the Billionaires are paying a lot less tax.

That is exactly what happened to me. I had my taxes withheld at the amount so every year I would get back $1,000-$1,500 for the last 10 years. Just did my taxes this year and I owe just over $1,100.

Thought I was getting a break but now they want it back. Scam to make people think they were getting a bigger tax cut than they were to make it look good through the election....

The kicker is that my tax program warned me that I may have to pay a penalty for not withholding enough, though I hadn't made any changes to my withholdings...

Jokes on them

I also use TurboTax..... $29, too simple.. LIke a tax preparer, it just asks questions and you give the appropriate answers..
I did not change anything from last year JUST to see if there is any change. Single filer, Tax taken out of SS and Pension, not disbursement. Standard deduction as my deductions don't go over the Std Deduction.
I'm getting $200 more back this year than last.. Big woop.. Same as Bush's cut..
Now I'm gonna cut back on the tax withheld from the pension so I don't owe and don't get money back...Why give the gov't a free loan.. I like to break even... YMMV works for me!!
m

We made more $ last year as dh’s company sold and paid out some stock options as income. Plus the old company gave a bonus before becoming the new company and the new company gave another bonus later in the year.

We owe $800 more in federal taxes. For the first time in YEARS, we didn’t hit the AMT. What the hell did they do to that part of the tax code that allowed us to escape that??? Sheesh. Really tilted towards the upper income earners clearly. A gift that should not have been given.

We got hit with about $1200 more in state taxes. It’s all because of the changes to the federal tax code and the limiting of SALT. Meh. It’s all good. We can afford it and I don’t mind paying our blue state a bit more in taxes.

Bottom line: mixed result. Really don’t like the new tax code; people that make more should pay more, not less.

While this is certainly going to hopefully make those who voted Republican reconsider, and anger those who voted Dem to make them all come back to vote the asshat out.... which part of me is happy about....

I'm really scared for people who trusted the withholding calculator their company used vs being suspicious and determined enough to calculate what they'd really owe and fix their withholding. Mom kept saying "But I choose 0 exemptions, take everything"... and she's still owing.

I've heard all the horror stories.... I got about $500 back last year. This year I made more money, but my withholdings were basically the same as last year which surprised me.... I expected them to be more! Assuming if withholding is at the same rate, since i made more, more would be withheld.........

ALSO........ in 2017 somehow my employer had me down as "married with 1 exemption" when it should have been "married and 0" (just me and my wife). I discovered this in April and corrected it but basically the first 3 months of the year I was not withholding enough.

So imagine my surprise when in 2018 I make more money AND withhold at the correct higher rate ALL YEAR but my Federal taxes withheld is the SAME as 2017. Didn't make sense to me but it does when I understand the drumpf bullshitted the withholding tables to make it look like everyone has more in their paycheck......

THAT BEING SAID....... when I ran my numbers through a refund estimater, it is saying I should get back $1500 instead of the $500 I did last year. Soooooooooooooo maybe its wrong but I don't know why I'm making out "better" when everyone else is worse....... For the record I never itemize.

out and am just rolling my eyes as more of his minions figure out they were scammed. One of the complaints actually mentioned the pension issue that you're referring to.

Link to tweet

I read through some of these and am shaking my head at the ignorance. Starting with Carlos it's clear he doesn't understand even the basics.

But my favorite is Earl Rose III - he apparently is hopping mad about something to do with his "perineum". If that's the case, he has bigger problems than his taxes