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Tax check (1 Viewer)

Just filed, had to wait for my 1099-DIV and 1099-B.  

Despite a few "tax harvesting" loss sales at the end of the year, my capital gains and dividends ended up costing me about 15% of my return.  :rant:  (not really ranting, we're talking about $800)

Of course, that's just due to a couple high dividend yielding stocks in the regular brokerage account.  Can't really complain too much, I knew that going in, then sort of forgot about it - much like anyone looking at their return and comparing to last year, then complaining that their return is lower seems to do.  

Still, effective tax rate of -3%, close to the same as last year.  Without the adoption tax credit we'd have been around 1%.  

 
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I'm still early in the process but the analysis I received today from my CPA shows my tax liability for 2019 being approximately 60% of what it was in 2018. Won't know the details for awhile but main contributors are the accelerated depreciation on a couple jobs that we would normally had taken over many yearssas well as the relief on profits for small businesses like us. Serious relief for small business if this shakes out like he says. 

 
My AGI went up about 3% from last year and my effective tax rate went down about 1%.

I typically like to break even ( +/- $200) but I didn't trust the "extra" money I was getting in my paycheck early in the year so I increased my withholdings and ended up with a refund of $1550.  Had I not changed my withholdings I would have owed around $500.  More evidence that looking at the refund is not the way to do it 😜 

 
Steeler said:
My AGI went up about 3% from last year and my effective tax rate went down about 1%.
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Finally got my last forms in.  My AGI went up about 10% from last year and my effective tax rate went up about 1% (marginal bracket went from 25 to 22%, so I didn't jump up on bracket).  Federal tax paid went up 18%.  I guess I'm one of the few who is in that hole and hit pretty hard.  Overall I'm paying the feds and getting back a chunk from state - just enough to be $20 in the red.  So a wash.

 
Tax went down from 15.5% of income to 13%.  I had to pay a few hundred at filing instead of previously getting some money back.

 
 I had to cut a larger check to the government than usual, but my effective tax rate went down despite being in a very high SALT state. 

 
Due to the change in homeowners deductions, essentially making owning a home no better then renting, we ended up owing a sizable amount. In years past we have always received a refund. 

 
Sand said:
The US govt. started withholding so that they would get their money first.  Given the exact behavior your talked about re: American citizen spending habits, if the UST didn't people would spend it all before tax time.  That said I completely agree that the UST hosed up the withholding tables.  We have historically put trust in their ability to be consistent and they failed.
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This isn't really directed at you, I agree with everything you're saying here, but I would just like to point out that the IRS has had major budgetary problems for a few years.  They are significantly hamstrung right now, and have been for a bit.  While I am absolutely a proponent of smaller government, and I think there's a ton of waste in the system, it was not really a surprise to me that they ####ed up the withholding tables, and to a certain extent I don't really blame them for it.  They're doing the best they can with the resources they have at the moment, and tried (and failed) to warn taxpayers that the withholding tables were a disaster.  

 
We had a lot more expenses this year over last leading to my refund being almost as much as my W-2 earnings for the year (which isn’t more than a minimal salary but for a refund is awesome). When attempting to normalize the expenses to similar year over year it look like the new tax laws and depreciation changes lowered our tax liability about 24% from last year. Awesome savings for a small business.  :thumbup:

 
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Kind of an interesting situation - my itemized deductions are about $23,800. So Turbo Tax told me to take the Standard Deduction of $24k.

But get this - Maryland still allows you to deduct SALT, but in order to itemize your State Tax return deductions you must also itemize your Federal return.

So I ran it both ways and guess what? By forgoing the extra $200 in federal returns that the Standard Deduction would have saved me and itemizing instead, I make up $1K extra on my Maryland taxes, netting me $800.

I do think it sucks that Turbo Tax isn't smart enough to compute this and would have happily shorted me $800. 

 
The_Man said:
Kind of an interesting situation - my itemized deductions are about $23,800. So Turbo Tax told me to take the Standard Deduction of $24k.

But get this - Maryland still allows you to deduct SALT, but in order to itemize your State Tax return deductions you must also itemize your Federal return.

So I ran it both ways and guess what? By forgoing the extra $200 in federal returns that the Standard Deduction would have saved me and itemizing instead, I make up $1K extra on my Maryland taxes, netting me $800.

I do think it sucks that Turbo Tax isn't smart enough to compute this and would have happily shorted me $800. 
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I'm guessing Maryland lawmakers' phones are going to be ringing off the hook from angry taxpayers because of this.  What a silly law especially in light of the federal tax reform.

 
Pipes said:
I'm guessing Maryland lawmakers' phones are going to be ringing off the hook from angry taxpayers because of this.  What a silly law especially in light of the federal tax reform.
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I don't know - Maryland is sitting on an extra $400 million this year, because of the lost federal deductions in our relatively high-income, high-tax state. Because rich people can deduct less, they're paying taxes on more of their income and Maryland is reaping the rewards.

I am in a fairly unique (and terrible) place that my allowable deductions are literally 99.98 of the standard deduction. Sure does suck not being able to deduct the additional $15k in SALT that I could before.

 
The_Man said:
I am in a fairly unique (and terrible) place that my allowable deductions are literally 99.98 of the standard deduction. Sure does suck not being able to deduct the additional $15k in SALT that I could before.
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You're not unique.  I'm almost exactly where you are - ended up at $24,800, I think.  I lost 16k of deductions versus last year, which cost me a few thousand in taxes.  You're right, though, right at 24k is the worst place to be.

This year we'll be prepaying church contribution in 2019 for 2020 to capture itemized deductions this year and then being way under next year.   You want to be as far away from the 24k as possible, one way or another.  I figure that timing of contribution will save me 3-4k over the next two years.  Crazy, but them's the rules, as I learned.  

 
The_Man said:
I got F’ed by a couple grand. Lost about $8k in deductions so I owe more in taxes. And because they decreased my withholding the gap is even bigger. Yeah, I know I got the extra $ during the year but it’s still a kick in the nads to write a check for $4 or 5k 
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Try $20K.  That's fun. SALT ($10K in CA - yeah right) and I guess the changes in withholdings totally screwed us. Last year I'm going to be a pigeon playing the wrong side of this game.  Several businesses and pass throughs next year.

 
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the personal exemption part was something that i hadn't really paid attention to and that kind of banged us.  we gained in some places, lost in others.  had to pay, but effective tax rate actually went down slightly.

 
Ended up having to pay in $894 to federal and  $440 into state.  Had to pay $3500 in last year to federal so Trump's plan definitely helped my family. Made more this year and payed less.

 
Walking Boot said:
:confused:

While you probably paid less, if there above is the only info you have, you don't know enough to tell.

You need to account for your total withholding. 
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My total tax last for 2017 was 13k, my tax for last year was 9.8K. My household made 2K more last year than the year before.

 
We got ####ED!   9K owed this year.  

I guess I will not be buying a simple battery this year for work since nothing is deductible.   No mileage, no unreimbursed expenses, no deductions for work items, clothes, expenses, recertifications, licensure, nada.   FML

 
Had to use the standard deduction, but overall my amount owed went down by $5k even though income went up a lot more. Effective tax rate went from 25% to 21%. My deductions were around half due to the SALT limits, but I did finally get the child tax credit for 2.25 of my 3 kids. Based on my effective tax rate, that $4500 credit was basically $22,500 in deductions so that alone almost equaled it.

Overall, Trump saved me some a lot of money. I do need to get my W-4 setup correctly. I'm tired of owing money.

 
We made 32k more and paid 18k more in taxes. Our $8500 refund the last 8~ years became $750. No work deductions absolutely crushed us. Ridiculous.

 
Fed tax effective rate fell to 9.8%.

2014 12.0%

2015 12.2%

2016 12.1%

2017 12.6%

Child tax credit going from $400 to $4000 was the major difference.

 
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Fed tax effective rate was 11%  owed $1000 because of withholding changes.

I think the previous year was 12%.  The last 10 years has been in the 9-12% rate. 

 
Fed tax rate increased to 19% from 16.77% last year. Made an additional 16k on AGI, and paid an additional 3k in taxes. Fed changed tax rate in bracket from 25% in 2017 to 22% this year. 

 
SHIZNITTTT said:
We got ####ED!   9K owed this year.  

I guess I will not be buying a simple battery this year for work since nothing is deductible.   No mileage, no unreimbursed expenses, no deductions for work items, clothes, expenses, recertifications, licensure, nada.   FML
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What you owe or get back at tax time is not the measure.  This could just be a withholding issue.

If you did not itemize the above list, I assume the standard deduction was greater than your itemized total... meaning you came out ahead using the new standard deduction?

 
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matuski said:
What you owe or get back at tax time is not the measure.  This could just be a withholding issue.

If you did not itemize the above list, I assume the standard deduction was greater than your itemized total... meaning you came out ahead using the new standard deduction?
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Was told by our tax guy that we were not allowed to deduct those expenses this year.  For over 20 years we have deducted the expenses that were not reimbursed from our employer.  

 
had a salesman come into my office this morning complaining that WE changed his withholdings and now he owes $18,000 in taxes.  I told him to check his tax rate last year to this year and he's probably lower this year, but I don't think it made him feel any better 

 
cap'n grunge said:
Fed tax effective rate fell to 9.8%.

2014 12.0%

2015 12.2%

2016 12.1%

2017 12.6%

Child tax credit going from $400 to $4000 was the major difference.
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To add a little info, our data is pretty much flat year to year. I went from $18k in itemized deducts and $16k in exemptions, total $34k to $24k standard deduction. This $10k drop in deductions was pretty much offset by the drop in rates and ranges. The child tax credit was the difference as we only qualified for $400 of a possible $2000 because of income phaseouts. The deduction doubled to $2K per child and the phaseouts went away unless you make FBG money (not us) so we get $4k instead of $400.

 
For the first time ever I owed. It's annoying because my wife and I claim 0 deductions on our paychecks. Gonna have to withhold an additional 300/ month so I don't owe next year. 

 
I don't understand why the deductions were removed? Scrubs,  Certifications, excess mileage, tolls, licensure, conferences (mandatory for CEU's), mileage,  and a ton of others that are not reimbursed per our employer. 

 
shadyridr said:
For the first time ever I owed. It's annoying because my wife and I claim 0 deductions on our paychecks. Gonna have to withhold an additional 300/ month so I don't owe next year. 
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My wife will argue I did something wrong... Lol

 
-OZ- said:
Just filed, had to wait for my 1099-DIV and 1099-B.  

Despite a few "tax harvesting" loss sales at the end of the year, my capital gains and dividends ended up costing me about 15% of my return.  :rant:  (not really ranting, we're talking about $800)
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Man I hate waiting for the brokerages to send us the tax forms. 

Why do they take so much longer than employers?

 
Dan Lambskin said:
SHIZNITTTT said:
I don't understand why the deductions were removed? Scrubs,  Certifications, excess mileage, tolls, licensure, conferences (mandatory for CEU's), mileage,  and a ton of others that are not reimbursed per our employer. 
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Those tax breaks for the rich don’t pay for themselves 
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Yep.  Same reason SALT was capped (and tried to be removed all together).   

I got screwed again by these “tax cuts”.  Unreal.  

 
I’m just waiting to verify my church contributions. I track it myself, so I know the amount; but it would be nice to see it officially from them. When I log in online, it’s missing the first few contributions from 2019 because they switched systems so I really want to see something officially from my church. Once I square that away, I will file. Maybe I will just talk to someone tomorrow.

Do most of you still wait for documents in the mail? I track everything myself and then I just go to my online accounts to see all the forms and get the official numbers  

My oldest turns 17 this year. Good thing we feds got a decent pay bump to counter that $2k I now have to pay in taxes in 2020. 

 
-OZ- said:
Man I hate waiting for the brokerages to send us the tax forms. 

Why do they take so much longer than employers?
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That and one INT form from the bank. Odd that THOSE are the long poles in the tent for me.

 
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