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How are your taxes this year (1 Viewer)

How are your taxes this year


  • Total voters
    91
I think the poll is a little confusing because your refund is not necessarily indicative of your tax liability. Voted owed a lot less based on my effective tax rate going down. But my refund went up only slightly and that's mostly because I changed jobs and they withheld too much when the old job paid out my vacation time.

FWIW I have no children and do not own a home.

 
Poll is flawed.  I owed a much higher payment but my taxes actually went down about 5k (on about $1k less income)

 
I did not call you a liar.  The facts support my statement.
I never said you did. I said it was weird for you to call others liars based on a data set still being created. I would appreciate it if you’d stop being rude to the board members, and join the conversation like an adult. 

 
Where did anyone say you are a liar? I posted my honest opinion, why did that need to be censored? 
When you said people were lying and using aliases. I’m in the thread, and doing neither. It was a point about generalizations, and also to ask you to stop.  Anyway, no one here is interested in this conversation, so maybe you and noonan can stop? 

 
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When you said people were lying and using aliases. I’m am in the thread, and doing neither. It was a point about generalizations, and also to ask you to stop.  Anyway, no one here is interested in this conversation, so maybe you and noonan can stop? 
Maybe you can stop posting false accusations? I stand by my comment and believe it is accurate. 

 
Maybe you can stop posting false accusations? I stand by my comment and believe it is accurate. 
Heh. Dude, your words are there, and clear for all to see. You can believe anything you like, but my point is correct, and it stands.  I believe the mods and Joe have asked you guys to stop, so maybe you can take the opportunity to do so. Thanks, and have a good one. I’m not going further with this conversation. 

 
Very flawed article here, but I'm biased.  
It's VOX.   It will be biased.

I would like to see a counter argument.  How much does it cost the IRS to do this?  Is that part of the reason?   Maybe not, but I didn't see much about the "other sides" opinion

 
Heh. Dude, your words are there, and clear for all to see. You can believe anything you like, but my point is correct, and it stands.  I believe the mods and Joe have asked you guys to stop, so maybe you can take the opportunity to do so. Thanks, and have a good one. I’m not going further with this conversation. 
Hi there Football Freak.  Sounds like you didn't comprehend my post very well.  Let me help you out.  Fact is that the new tax law improved the majority of Americans bottom line.  Not debatable.  I said either we have a high number of people responding from high state income tax states or people are not being honest with their answers as 67% have said their taxes went up.

Please stop being rude and polluting the forum.  Thanks.

 
Ok wait...I opened up this bill and the following is included in the text:  What am I missing? It reads as if the free preparation will continue???????

EC. 1102. IRS FREE FILE PROGRAM.

(a) In General.—

(1) The Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary’s delegate, shall continue to operate the IRS Free File Program as established by the Internal Revenue Service and published in the Federal Register on November 4, 2002 (67 Fed. Reg. 67247), including any subsequent agreements and governing rules established pursuant thereto.

(2) The IRS Free File Program shall continue to provide free commercial-type online individual income tax preparation and electronic filing services to the lowest 70 percent of taxpayers by adjusted gross income. The number of taxpayers eligible to receive such services each year shall be calculated by the Internal Revenue Service annually based on prior year aggregate taxpayer adjusted gross income data.

(3) In addition to the services described in paragraph (2), and in the same manner, the IRS Free File Program shall continue to make available to all taxpayers (without regard to income) a basic, online electronic fillable forms utility.

(4) The IRS Free File Program shall continue to work cooperatively with the private sector to provide the free individual income tax preparation and the electronic filing services described in paragraphs (2) and (3).

(5) The IRS Free File Program shall work cooperatively with State government agencies to enhance and expand the use of the program to provide needed benefits to the taxpayer while reducing the cost of processing returns.

(b) Innovations.—The Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary’s delegate, shall work with the private sector through the IRS Free File Program to identify and implement, consistent with applicable law, innovative new program features to improve and simplify the taxpayer’s experience with completing and filing individual income tax returns through voluntary compliance

 
Hi there Football Freak.  Sounds like you didn't comprehend my post very well.  Let me help you out.  Fact is that the new tax law improved the majority of Americans bottom line.  Not debatable.  I said either we have a high number of people responding from high state income tax states or people are not being honest with their answers as 67% have said their taxes went up.

Please stop being rude and polluting the forum.  Thanks.
If you read the poll question it was obvious that he was asking about the return and what the final tally was in terms of refund or payment.  The OP was not asking about total tax paid (by my reading).

It is conceivable that given the same income as 2017 a) someone paid less in total taxes and b) owed the irs for underpayment due to insufficient withholdings. 

 
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Here is the house ways and means summary of the bill as well:    I don't know what the heck is going on here.

Sec. 1102. IRS Free File Program. The IRS currently works with electronic tax preparation services to provide free tax preparation software and electronically fillable 2 forms. This program is known as the IRS Free File program. Generally, there is no fee for taxpayers using the Free File program provided they meet certain income thresholds. This provision codifies the existing Free File program and requires the IRS to continue to work with private stakeholders to maintain, improve, and expand the program. The provision also requires Free File program members to continue to provide basic fillable forms to all taxpayers. This provision is estimated to have no revenue impact over the 10-year budget window

I absolutely HATE this crap.   The bill essentially mandates that the IRS work with private companies to make sure these free services are provided, rather than develop their own.  That's it.  No effect on anyone who uses the free services now.  None. Zero.  If you used it last year for free, you can use it this year for free too.

The complaint seems to be that less than 3% of people use the IRS programs.  Because H&R Block and others try to make it a little difficult to find it out that these free filing programs exist.

Then MULTIPLE news agencies write articles like this:

Politicians and Tax Prep Companies Are Teaming Up to Make Sure Filing Stays an Expensive Nightmare

And contribute to the problem.   God I hate the media HATE HATE HATE....

 
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Hi there Football Freak.  Sounds like you didn't comprehend my post very well.  Let me help you out.  Fact is that the new tax law improved the majority of Americans bottom line.  Not debatable.  I said either we have a high number of people responding from high state income tax states or people are not being honest with their answers as 67% have said their taxes went up.

Please stop being rude and polluting the forum.  Thanks.
I don't think everyone is interpreting the poll the same way and therein lies the confusion.  Isn't the poll asking about our refund and not how much we paid in total taxes?

 
Hawkeye21 said:
I don't think everyone is interpreting the poll the same way and therein lies the confusion.  Isn't the poll asking about our refund and not how much we paid in total taxes?
“Owed” might be throwing people off. I’m fairly sure Fred was just accounting for the fact that not everone will get a refund, but still wanted to see how the tax laws hit FBGs. 

 
Blue Dot Orange Dot said:
I did our taxes last night and was convinced I did something wrong. I triple-checked to make sure I didn't screw anything up.

Our effective tax rate per TurboTax dropped from 26.02% in 2017 to 23.4% in 2018. We took the standard deduction since we couldn't itemize enough to get above it. I was worried that the withholding tables would leave us owing money but we got a pretty big refund - just in time for Vegas this weekend!
User name :lmao:

 
Don't Noonan said:
Well we either have a lot of people responding in high state income tax states or we have quite a few people not being honest.  2/3 of Americans did not see their taxes go up.
How is this possible when the IRS indicates that tax refunds have for American citizens have fallen by 6 billion this year compared to last?

Not surprisingly, the largest banks have gotten an extra 28 billion.

 
Hawkeye21 said:
I don't think everyone is interpreting the poll the same way and therein lies the confusion.  Isn't the poll asking about our refund and not how much we paid in total taxes?
I assume that the owed part is supposed to capture that.  It probably would be more straightforward to just use effective tax rate.

 
How is this possible when the IRS indicates that tax refunds have for American citizens have fallen by 6 billion this year compared to last?

Not surprisingly, the largest banks have gotten an extra 28 billion.
The poll also refers to tax liability, not just refund amount. While refunds may be down if you didn't adjust withholding, have that many also seen tax liability go up year over year? 

 
The poll also refers to tax liability, not just refund amount. While refunds may be down if you didn't adjust withholding, have that many also seen tax liability go up year over year? 
Those affected by the SALT changes yes.  

 
The poll also refers to tax liability, not just refund amount. While refunds may be down if you didn't adjust withholding, have that many also seen tax liability go up year over year? 
It seems that early figures lean towards yes (Business Insider from Feb), but I don’t think we can quite trust figures yet since we’re still before the tax deadline. To be fair, 6 billion isn’t that big of a number when you consider that $320+ billion went out in refunds last year, so it might be wrong, or within the usual yearly deviation. I suspect that the mortgage deduction changes might make tax liability go up, but I’m no tax guru.

I’m not a mod, so I’m sorry for acting like one to you. It seems it might have been more related to confusion, anyway. 

 
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It seems that early figures lean towards yes (Business Insider from Feb), but I don’t think we can quite trust figures yet since we’re still before the tax deadline. To be fair, 6 billion isn’t that big of a number when you consider that $320+ billion went out in refunds last year, so it might be wrong, or within the usual yearly deviation. I suspect that the mortgage deduction changes might make tax liability go up, but I’m no tax guru.

I’m not a mod, so I’m sorry for acting like one to you and Don’t Noonan. It seems it might have been more related to confusion, anyway. 
No worries man, all good.  :thumbup:

See attached under general takeaways, looks like between 3-8% depending on state were expected to see an increase. If you believe this poll is 100% correct and hones then about 52% saw an increase?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/06/taxes-2018-you-owe-year-get-refund/2207406002/

 
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No worries man, all good.  :thumbup:

See attached under general takeaways, looks like between 3-8% depending on state were expected to see an increase. If you believe this poll is 100% correct and hones then about 52% saw an increase?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/06/taxes-2018-you-owe-year-get-refund/2207406002/
👍🏼

That takeaway section is a helpful breakdown. Thank you. 3-8% increase from that section pertaining to particular states that would see an increase due to local rules/laws (guess who lives in a state that is 8%) plus another 12% from those who used SALT deductions. Obviously, I have no idea how much overlap there is in those percentages, if any.

It looks like I am one of the unlucky ones who got hit by both, and it might explain the poll results we’re seeing, if I’m understanding that article correctly. FBG demographics, as evinced by Maurile’s polls, aren’t exactly a microcosm of the US. I’ll be interested to see the impact on different states/demographics when the tax data is all compiled. 

 
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I haven't seen my final income numbers (I am guessing our family made maybe 10K - 20K less than last year though). My taxes went down significantly though. Owe the feds a couple hundred bucks. Owe the state 1K, but am getting a 1K property refund. Last year we owed 7K  total if I remember correctly.

 
Our tax burden dropped YOY. However, it's hard to compare apples-to-apples due to a new baby, buying a new house, and some other one offs. I plugged our 2018 numbers into a calculator for tax year 2017 and the estimate was within about $500 one way or the other (can't remember which).  The cap on SALT hurt quite a bit, but was offset by the lower rates. 

 
No worries man, all good.  :thumbup:

See attached under general takeaways, looks like between 3-8% depending on state were expected to see an increase. If you believe this poll is 100% correct and hones then about 52% saw an increase?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/06/taxes-2018-you-owe-year-get-refund/2207406002/
For what it's worth, I read the answered very literally and answered "I got a smaller refund / owed a little more".  I'm not sure people are lying in here so much as either misunderstanding the question or using the potential answers literally.  I'm not even really sure what the question is asking.  

 
Steve Tasker said:
For what it's worth, I read the answered very literally and answered "I got a smaller refund / owed a little more".  I'm not sure people are lying in here so much as either misunderstanding the question or using the potential answers literally.  I'm not even really sure what the question is asking.  
Good point some may not understand, I took it to read the "owed more" referring to tax liability.

Question for anyone that has e-filed and had a refund, how long is it taking for the refund to hit your account? Steve you probably seeing a good number of these???

 
Good point some may not understand, I took it to read the "owed more" referring to tax liability.

Question for anyone that has e-filed and had a refund, how long is it taking for the refund to hit your account? Steve you probably seeing a good number of these???
I got my e-filed refund in like 2 weeks.  I have not heard any unusual gripes from clients about refund timing....I usually only hear from people when it gets to be an inordinate amount of time.  

 
My e-file was quite quick as well.  Was under 2 weeks from when my return was accepted and when the direct deposit hit.

 
my federal tax rate went down from 9.1% to 8.5% as I figured it .... stayed the same for SS and such

I made $14,000 more but still under $100,000 (lot of OT)

I am right now about $4,000 less than what i got last year .... I didn't have the same 401K contributions ... and I think something is off either in the way I'm reporting my wife/daughter college full time numbers/cost ..... or the standard deductions have changed or something else ? 

but fact I am paying less in Federal taxes

 
 Our taxes owed went up by 9K

We made 10k more this year as a couple.     WOW! 

No deductions for unreimbursed expenses.  Big HIT! 

I am not feeling the MAGA at this time. 

 
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Was listening to a sports guy on the radio yesterday, that has been a big Trump supporter, who said he owed $1000 last year and this year he owes $10,000.  Per him that's with no change in income or regular paycheck taxes.  I'm sure he's probably lying though right? :rolleyes:

 
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Final numbers just in.  AGI up 10%, total tax owed down 9%.  Effective rate went down 17.7%.

Now we also owe a lot, but that came from underestimating Q4 earnings and rental properties showing gains versus losses last years.

 
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My tax rate was %16 higher this year. Thanks Trump.
Yeah, I'm not buying this.  Unless you had a huge spike in income.

Personally, I still owed money on my federal return (why give the feds an interest-free loan?), but it was about $1500 to $2000 less than last year, despite making more money in 2018 than 2017, and making no changes to my W-4.

Trump is killing it.

 
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