2018 Tax Survey

Did your 2018 tax as a percentage of taxable income go up or down compared to 2017?

  • It went up.

    Votes: 22 40.7%
  • It went down.

    Votes: 31 57.4%
  • It stayed the same.

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • It stayed the same because I voluntarily paid more in taxes than required.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    54
  • Poll closed .
There are few things I will guarantee, one of them is fiscal sanity will never come back and they will ride the borrowing horse until it is lame and the country is bankrupt.

MM
Maybe if the public made this an issue we could force some change. I got my doubts though, a good portion of them are preoccupied with things like race, fairness, me2, all the different genders, and cultural appropriation. Oh ya man, even Mickey Mouse back in a 1933 cartoon wore blackface....outrageous I tell ya.There's so much to be outraged about there's no time left for anything else.

I'll even upset them some more. Back in '85 my 5yo son thought Micheal Jackson was cool, he wanted curly hair but didn't want to go to Ma's hair dresser alone. So one day there we were sittin' side by side in the shop as the ladies did their thing. We both walked out of that place rockin' a MJ do. Hell, late one night down at the bowling alley I even did some moon walkin', anyone don't like it, they can kiss my a$$. What happened to 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'.

And genders, infinite genders?....Folks there's only two, ya' gotta trust me on this. I've known that since the day Elanore and I went to the barn to swing on the rope hanging from the hay loft. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I seen with my own eyes, there's just splittails and hairylegs, that's it.

I could probably set them straight on a few more issues but right now I have to go plow snow.
 
I'll even upset them some more. Back in '85 my 5yo son thought Micheal Jackson was cool, he wanted curly hair but didn't want to go to Ma's hair dresser alone. So one day there we were sittin' side by side in the shop as the ladies did their thing. We both walked out of that place rockin' a MJ do. Hell, late one night down at the bowling alley I even did some moon walkin', anyone don't like it, they can kiss my a$$. What happened to 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'.

I thought the CSR montra was "it's not true without pictures." :)
 
We live in a time of great ignorance and there is absolutely no embarrassment for that ignorance. Most of the public has no idea how deep in debt we are as a country and how much has been borrowed in the last 10 years. They have no idea how the bill of rights has been trampled and negated by the abhorrently named Patriot act. If those of us that know try to communicate this to them the eyes glaze and they begin singing la la la la as they do not want to hear, as that might require them to think about it.

They will just go along in ignorance until there is a meltdown then they will blame everyone else, as there is no way it could be their fault.

MM
 
We live in a time of great ignorance and there is absolutely no embarrassment for that ignorance. Most of the public has no idea how deep in debt we are as a country and how much has been borrowed in the last 10 years. They have no idea how the bill of rights has been trampled and negated by the abhorrently named Patriot act. If those of us that know try to communicate this to them the eyes glaze and they begin singing la la la la as they do not want to hear, as that might require them to think about it.

They will just go along in ignorance until there is a meltdown then they will blame everyone else, as there is no way it could be their fault.

MM
I wholeheartedly agree. Particularly with respect to the Patriot Act, perhaps the greatest and most far reaching violation of American Constitutional Rights in our lifetimes. The fact that the most intrusive and unconstitutional provisions of the act were created and maintained in the cloak of Top Secret National Security interests only adds insult to injury. And most people have no idea what’s been done to them...
 
We live in a time of great ignorance and there is absolutely no embarrassment for that ignorance. Most of the public has no idea how deep in debt we are as a country and how much has been borrowed in the last 10 years. They have no idea how the bill of rights has been trampled and negated by the abhorrently named Patriot act. If those of us that know try to communicate this to them the eyes glaze and they begin singing la la la la as they do not want to hear, as that might require them to think about it.

They will just go along in ignorance until there is a meltdown then they will blame everyone else, as there is no way it could be their fault.

MM
Do you not think that "ignorance" is by design?
The premise that those earning a paycheck are required to have taxes and entitlement withheld by the employer and the fact that we employer's have to match the entitlements and pay other state and local overheads engenders ignorance; this is by design. The 16 Amendment, ratified in 1913, established the basis of the tax code. It wasn't until the Great Depression that the means for collection using payroll was implemented, mostly to accommodate disability income insurance then further enhanced in the 1930 as a part of the New Deal by FDR to add Social Security. All designed to do two things: keep the government and entitlements actively funded and to shade the cost of the US society. The simple fact that most gleefully proclaim they got money back is endemic of that ignorance. Personally, I strive to write a one dollar check for taxes due at the end of the tax year; I'm never that good however. If each month everyone earning a living had to cut a check for all taxes and entitlements due, things would be quite a bit different.
 
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Plugged in my numbers. Tax rate went down and taxable income went down due to the standard deduction. Saved a shade over $2000 using the same numbers 2017 vs. 2018 tax law. Over payment is a few hundred so I came close to nailing the withholding as well.
 
I did a back of the napkin calculation. AGI stayed the same. Took standard deduction (itemization would have been way less). Taxable income up about $13,000 (lost exemptions). Total tax is $893 less than 2017. Tax rate against AGI wen down 0.6%. Basically what I thought -- I figured I'd plus minus a few hundred dollars.

Withheld less so my refund is $300 less. I guess I should be mad at the government. Bastards.
 
My tax return was finished today. A comparison this year to last shows my effective tax rate has dropped. The Trump tax changes have benefited me. I'm going to wear my MAGA hat all day tomorrow as homage to The Donald.

FWIW, my good friend runs an accounting business, she does a couple thousand returns each year. With all the changes this year, the misunderstanding around the subject of 'refunds', and the political cloud hanging over our heads, I jokingly told her she'd be doing this country a service if she took extra time to explain each individuals return to them.

She told me she was actually doing that very thing. But even where effective tax rate was down, about half would get upset, claim Trump screwed them, if their refund had shrunk much or if they had to pay a bit more in.

One customer had a question for her a couple days ago. The person had heard down at the bar that the reason lots of people weren't getting their refunds was that Trump was taking them so he could build the wall. After giving the customer a proper explanation, the customer said 'ya', but do you think Trump is taking the refunds'? She responded 'no, that would be fake news'.

She said the fake news reference went right over the customers head along with her explanation of the tax policy changes and their effects.

Jaybeaux, I'm going to your poll to vote now.
 
Looks like the majority of people will have paid less to the feds in 2018 when all is said and done.
The exception is going to be those of us in the high tax states where our state/local income tax and real property taxes combined exceed $10,000.00
For those in other states who see a smaller return on the same amount of income, it’s probably due to the less federal withholding through the year so they got it in their paychecks instead of waiting until the end.
NY Governor Cuomo met with the President yesterday to cry about the 2.3 billion less the state took in from state personal income tax in 2018 because of earners fleeing to places like Florida. He claims the $10,000.00 cap on SALT deductions unfairly targets democrat controlled states because they are the ones who have taxes higher than that.
Oh, the irony...........
Hmmm....free state college tuition to families making less than 125k a year, paid family leave tax instituted by Cuomo in 2018, liberal social entitlement policies.....etc......
Maybe taxpayers in those states need to ask why the Republicans can run states for less than Democrats. I guess all the free stuff the Dems give away isn’t really free....
 
Woody, I really appreciate your thoughtful, well presented post. We must think alike as just this morning, I decided to do an H&R Block on-line tax estimator. It's free and you don't have to input any personal information-just numbers. While losing almost $20,000 in deductions in 2018 compared to 2017, I am happy to report that my (estimated) Effective Tax Rate (that's the definition that I finally learned through all of this discussion) has been reduced in 2018 to 21.6% compared to a 27.8% in 2017!

We have had our withholdings on cruise control for almost 20 years. We use a flat percentage of every dollar earned. It has worked well for us in the past, as we either had to write a small-ish check (preferred) or have received a refund in the $2k-$5k. AMT seemed to swing it, but that is gone now!!!

To summarize: Effective Tax Rate
2017: 27.8%
2018: 21.6%

I will update this when we finalize our taxes.

Jaybeaux
 
This tax cut is nice, none of that frugal shit at the fuel dock this summer....I'll pull up, new National Anthem blasting, fill 'er up honey and here's an extra $50, don't thank me, thank The Donald.:cool:
 
Got my finalized 2018 Taxes today. I hit my estimate on the head!

Effective Tax Rate
2017: 27.8%
2018: 21.6%
 
So glad I left the trump tax money going to the Feds. If not I would of owed $5800, this way, I got about the same return as last year, $80

No major changes, no tax windfall for my family
 
I made out with the tax reform this year, income went up taxes actually were less this year percentage wise than last year. So helped me out!
 
Listening to the media and it seems like everyone is complaining about not getting as much back in refunds this year. No mention of the extra money they got every week in their paychecks. I guess that part doesn't count as a tax reduction or fit their narrative.
 
Listening to the media and it seems like everyone is complaining about not getting as much back in refunds this year. No mention of the extra money they got every week in their paychecks. I guess that part doesn't count as a tax reduction or fit their narrative.
That was my point, I left that money going to the feds, would of been $5800.... there was no break for me..... same total tax as the year before...
 
I posted mine a few weeks back in this thread. It was something like 1% less overall tax for me so I did better this year. I didn't get quite as much back this year on my refund though. Maybe $500-1000 less but I did get something like an extra $50 in every paycheck ($50x24 paychecks is $1200 so I still ended up a little ahead).
 

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