Line 15, Total Tax divided by Line 10, Taxable Income

I was looking at the old form to calculate the difference between most recent and previous.

This is the problem - people have zero idea what 'effective tax' is.

Some people thing 'I pay my taxes' over the year, then get all of it and more bad - effectively paying zero tax.

Other people thing because they don't get a 'refund', that their taxes went 'up'.

Basic math is shockingly easy to do.

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Some people thing 'I pay my taxes' over the year, then get all of it and more back - effectively paying zero tax.

It's even worse than that.
It's a negative tax rate for many people who collect the EIC credit in addition to getting back whatever withholding they had. Of course they vote for more socialism and more taxes on the rich! There's no shared burden.

Do you remember when Romney made the comment about the 47% who don't pay taxes never going to vote for him anyway?

For this year and this year only, I lost out because I lost a huge number of work related exemptions. For a while we owned two houses before selling one of them and the interest was significant. I could have itemized and made more than the standard this year.

Next year with only one house and a recast mortgage and very low interest on the note, the standard will be the only way to go.

All in all, I did wind up writing a couple of checks to the .gov for a total of about 3 grand.

started working on mine yesterday

will file tonight

mine went up not only to the feds but also to the state, and thats after I increased my witholding amount to the state

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Originally posted by Sailor1911:
Line 15, Total Tax divided by Line 10, Taxable Income

Yup yup...thanks Balze and Sailor; corrected my post on the previous page. My Total Tax and Total Payments were so close, I picked up on the wrong number. In the end, I had to pay Uncle Sugar only $5.05. Yes...my EFFECTIVE tax rate went down slightly over last year, but I'll miss the approx. $4k refund.

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Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
For this year and this year only, I lost out because I lost a huge number of work related exemptions.

I feel your pain, brother!! This is basically the problem for aviation dudes and dudettes. Uncle Sugar took away a LOT of Commercial Airline aviation-related exemptions. With my only house as a write off for interest and taxes, I didn't have enough other aviation-related exemptions compared to years past to warrant NOT using the $12k standard deduction.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

Some people thing 'I pay my taxes' over the year, then get all of it and more back - effectively paying zero tax.

It's even worse than that.
It's a negative tax rate for many people who collect the EIC credit in addition to getting back whatever withholding they had. Of course they vote for more socialism and more taxes on the rich!

Yup.

Up. Way up. Principally because I sold a ton of Apple in early 2018 that I’d owned for well over a decade.

Down significantly, per TurboTax, effective rate of 19% for 2017, 15.5% for 2018. Was still able to use itemized deductions, but likely won't be able to next year.

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Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
Up. Way up. Principally because I sold a ton of Apple in early 2018 that I’d owned for well over a decade.

Well that is self inflicted and not a cause of the tax changes.

Both marginal rate and total tax went up.

Thankfully I withhold more than is necessary for just this type of eventuality.

Just did them this afternoon. Our effective tax rate (combined fed & state) dropped from about 24% to 20%. Can’t complain.

Without adjusting our withholding, we went from owing a combined approx. $900 (which I was very happy with) to getting a net refund of about $800, which I’m also happy with.

As a general rule of thumb, anything +/- $1K, I’ll call a win for my math.

-Rob

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Yes...my EFFECTIVE tax rate went down slightly over last year, but I'll miss the approx. $4k refund.

Simple. Starting today, have $335 per month pulled from your paycheck and into your Savings account or a Money Market fund. By April 15, 2020, you'll have $4,000 sitting there waiting for you.

Why provide the federal government a free loan and wait for a refund?

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Originally posted by steve495:
I know this has been mentioned in this thread before, but I'll mention it again. Those of you who are discussing how much their refund went up or down - just like the media - are not adding any valuable information at all to this thread.

My income did not change appreciably from last year. My taxes went up nearly $5000.

Taking away the job expenses deduction hurt me bad. $5000 bad.

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Originally posted by Sig2340:
Both marginal rate and total tax went up.
Thankfully I withhold more than is necessary for just this type of eventuality.

Same here.

The standard deduction went up, causing most people to not have to itemize deductions, which simplifies things somewhat. But... the personal exemptions went away. The biggest difference for me was my baby graduated and got a job. She's no longer my dependent. For the first time in 30 years I have no dependents. That's a good thing! Three kids and they are now all independent.

Income was up too, so not complaining.

Ours went down a little.

My income increased about $4200.00 over last year's, and my taxes were down just a hair under $200.00.

So I made a little more, and better yet got to pay less.

ARman

How much did it chap the NYT's ass to have to admit and publish this story?

Did you all ever stop to think that many people don't believe they did, because of news sources such as yourself constantly TELLING THEM LIES?

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Face It: You (Probably) Got a Tax Cut
Studies consistently find that the 2017 law cut taxes for most Americans. Most of them don’t buy it.

Link: NYT Admits Most People Got A Tax Cut

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Originally posted by Sailor1911:
New form for 2018. Divide line 15 by line 10;

Old Form divide line 64 by line 43.

Not an argument but rather a distinction. This only works for those who did not have high itemized deductions. In my case I have travel and work expenses not completely covered instead of high interest or taxes. It cost me more to earn the commissions.

I was "retired" last year and though earned much less, still paid a .6% higher rate thru standard deduction. With so much changing LY, it is difficult for me to attribute the difference.