Income went up close to 4% over the previous year, but income tax went down about $1000 (haven't calculated the effective rate).

I should be happy. And I am. But....

I did my first pass (will double and triple check my return before submitting). I owe double this year vs last year - thousands. That is a painful number to consider. I'll have to draw on savings.

But I did some stats like you guys did. AGI (not salary) went up 18% (bonuses and stuff). Effective rate went up 1%. So, all told, I guess not bad and I should be happy. But the check I need to write is huge for me. Will have to come out of my emergency savings (ie - if the water heater or AC/furnace breaks or something) and hope to replenish later this year. Hopefully the water heater, AC/Furnace don't break in the meantime (I'm sure it will now.....).

Hoping I missed something but that stats suggest not.

Effective rate decreased by 1.5 and amount owed dropped by $1300. Fixed income with RMD from IRA (deposited in to a savings account )

About the same for me

a large part of my salary is a once a year "bonus". In reality it's just money I should get all year, but it's dispensed once a year based on performance goals, sales, etc.

Uncle Sam rapes that sucker till it's bleeding and squealing which sucks. Yeah you get it back when you do your taxes but that's a year away. it's not taxed as normal salary, but as a bonus which is way higher rate on top of skewing my earnings wildly for that pay period. As I said it all evens out at tax time but it sucks in the meantime.

Less was taken out of each check and thus I had a smaller refund.

My income is basically fixed and was about the same as last year.

My taxes (Federal and State combined) went down about $200.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:
I believe overall the new standard deduction helped me, but the bigger benefit was the change in the AMT rules - not paying that!

My effective tax rate dropped 4%.

Me too.
My effective tax rate went from 20% to 14% this year. I made $30K more and paid $8K less in tax.

Happy for sure!

About the same I suppose.
I had a huge pay increase, and received a vacation that I was 1099’d for. So hard to compare to last year. Totally different tax bracket.
That said, I would have owed even more if the Minimum Standard Deduction hadn’t been doubled.

I definitely got screwed this year.

The cap on the SALT deduction really bent me over.

The $24k standard deduction didn't help.

The 20% QBI deduction was only about 1/5th of what I lost in SALT deductions.

Fact: my effective tax rate would have been lower under the previous tax regime.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
a large part of my salary is a once a year "bonus". In reality it's just money I should get all year, but it's dispensed once a year based on performance goals, sales, etc.

Uncle Sam rapes that sucker till it's bleeding and squealing which sucks. Yeah you get it back when you do your taxes but that's a year away. it's not taxed as normal salary, but as a bonus which is way higher rate on top of skewing my earnings wildly for that pay period. As I said it all evens out at tax time but it sucks in the meantime.

If you know which week the bonuses come in, you can ramp up your witholding for that one pay cycle.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
I definitely got screwed this year.

The cap on the SALT deduction really bent me over.

The $24k standard deduction didn't help.

The 20% QBI deduction was only about 1/5th of what I lost in SALT deductions.

Fact: my effective tax rate would have been lower under the previous tax regime.

I suffered the same fate as you. But you forgot to point out the reason why the previous tax regime was better for you....California is fucking us over on our state taxes!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by F12517:

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
I definitely got screwed this year.

The cap on the SALT deduction really bent me over.

The $24k standard deduction didn't help.

The 20% QBI deduction was only about 1/5th of what I lost in SALT deductions.

Fact: my effective tax rate would have been lower under the previous tax regime.

I suffered the same fate as you. But you forgot to point out the reason why the previous tax regime was better for you....California is fucking us over on our state taxes!!!!

You can have the same result in a lower tax state like MS (both property and income taxes). Well, not as dramatic, but same result. I expected that, but damn.

a bit lower

first time I have taken the standard deduction in forever

-----------------------------------------

Finally did the comparison and math:

Tax Rate
2017 - 17.81%
2018 - 16.61%
1.2% DECREASE

Actual Tax Paid
2017 - $10,545
2018 - $12,522*
18.74% INCREASE

* Did not itemize; took standard deduction and therefore Taxable Income was up 27.32% in 2018.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Finally did the comparison and math:

Tax Rate
2017 - 17.81%
2018 - 16.61%
1.2% DECREASE

Actual Tax Paid
2017 - $10,545
2018 - $12,522*
18.74% INCREASE

* Did not itemize; took standard deduction and therefore Taxable Income was up 27.32% in 2018.

Was this on exactly the same amount of income as what you made in 2017, or did you have a corresponding increase in income for 2018?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Would have to check gross income year over year. I stated the increase in taxable income in last the sentence in my post above. Actual taxes paid would be based on taxable income (formerly known as Adjusted Gross Income, AGI). Since previously deductible aviation expenses in 2017 are no longer deductible for 2018 (per diem, as an example), I could only use the standard deduction. Therefore, I had a higher taxable income, thus a greater tax liability.

EDIT TO ADD:
Gross income for 2018 was $6,287 greater than 2017.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: erj_pilot,

We did much better, refund higher. Just the wife and me. No mortgage deduction or itemizations and, we live in a no state tax state.

Our income virtually the same. Our refund was bigger. Very pleased. Go Trump 2020.

Income went up by 6k and paid almost 2k less taxes compared to the previous year.

My small refund was a little less then last year.