It's Tax Time. How Did You Do?

People who understand tax's never get refunds, instead they owe the IRS a small amount come tax time, it is foolish to pay additional tax's only to get a refund which by the way the IRS doesn't pay interest, as such getting a refund is loaning money to the government for free.

And doing that is dumb, one should keep as much as possible and put it toward paying off debt or into savings.

 

If they do they are foolish with money, which by the way is the most common way to be broke all the time.

 

Nothing wrong with borrowing money from the parents, if they can afford it, most commonly it gets one funded at a much lower interest rate than going to a bank.

As for Trump he paid back every dime he borrowed from his father with interest, the only difference was Trump, the son, went into high end real estate whereas his father bought into run down properties and fixed them up to be resold once almost fully rented.

Trump tried that method once in Ohio and almost lost his butt in the process and he would have except he was tipped off by an elderly tenant as to what was coming in a few years and was able to unload the property at a profit, but less than a profit he was used to making for the amount of money he invested.

 

That's total bull, anyone living paycheck to paycheck is either lightly educated, lazy or both.

 

Trump didn't take anything away from anyone and it impossible to predict how many refunds would be impacted, as such there was no reason for Trump to issue a so called warning about lower or higher refunds.

Refunds are totally under control of the taxpayer not the president, too little withheld which is the correct way to pay and money is owed the IRS, too much withheld the fools way and the taxpayer gets a no-interest refund.

I have always chosen to owe the IRS upon each filing that way the money stays in my pocket not handed over to the government to waste.

 

I learned dump people always seem to work harder, intelligent people tend to work smarter, therefore they work less and get paid more.

After I sold my contracting company and retired for the first time I became bored so I went to work for AT&T, what I discovered was a company where about a third of the employees where what I called sub average, they after decades had the same job they started with, they where making tons of money with lots of OT, but where living paycheck to paycheck because they couldn't manage their money.

We are talking about people making $85K+ and still broke.

Every raise and they where contractual, went toward acquiring more stuff, commonly on credit, they where working their butts off making other people wealthy and I wanted nothing to do with that scene.

 

Okay, finally got my 1099-Div form from Vanguard, so I could submit. I got a $2,100 refund. Nothing unusual, I've been in the same range for years, probably closer to $3,000, due to overwithholding. My refund, though, keeps going down as my dividend income increases.

 

So you are saying that Trump personally went through every tax return and gave bigger refund/lower liabilities to those that support him, and gave higher liabilities to others?

Then you follow up saying you will get more back. When did you become a Trump supporter.

 

No, I am saying that a lot of people are probably not fully honest when showing their personal tax data, especially because they have a partisan point to make. It is just too convenient for a Trump fan on an anonymous internet forum to exaggerate the personal benefit from the tax cut, as it is for someone with TDS to pretend they didn't get a cut or even have to pay more in taxes.

Just like many people lie to their doctor about their weight, their drinking and smoking habits.

But, back to the original question, overall I probably get to pay roughly $600-800 less in taxes per year since the cut. This has ZERO impact on my financial position and everyday life. I'd rather not have gotten the tax cut and the problems it is going to cause in the future.

 

So then there is no point in discussing anything because you just admit that you will lie to fit the narrative you want to convey

 

I don't. If I were going to lie because I don't like Trump, I would tell you that I pay more taxes after Trump's cuts. You can also see that I didn't post about my refund until I actually got my 1099-div form to be able to file. I have no reason to lie on an internet forum. For a lot of partisans, though, I am not so sure.

 

Wow. How did they miss that then in 2008, 2009, 2010?
I think you blowing smoke out of the back side.

 

So you shirk personal responsibility and use gov't provided healthcare.
Wish all residents of the country could use gov't provided healthcare if they so choose. IE single payer.

 

If someone didn't plan for their financial future it is called Darwin not Trump.

 

Excellent answer and explains why too many who banked their money on the Progressive Movement are now broke.

Too many fail to understand, it is the individual who controls their life and the less they involve the government into their life, the more of their earnings they can control and the better their life will be.

 

I believe you, Quantum. Thanks for participating.

 

Thanks, Seth. You are one of those posters who I respect very much, because you post well-reasoned responses and threads. We may not always agree on issues, but I always look forward to reading your responses. Keep them coming.

 

It is not Trump's fault that people have a hard time controlling their spending. Yet, that's exactly what the tax cuts rely on: People spend the money form the tax cuts (and more), instead of saving it. If everyone would put the additional money under the mattress, there would be no economic benefit that Trump could brag about.

It is, therefore, not too hard to argue that the tax withholding tables were changed to front-load this additional consumption into 2018, by making people feel better about their paychecks, in a behavioral economics trick to psychologically associate personal economic well-being with tax cuts. Now, I am not sure if there is evidence that this is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.

In this way, you can train people like dogs. It is always said that if you want to train a dog, you have to have them associate good behavior with a reward and bad behavior with punishment. However, the reward or punishment have to be immediate, otherwise the dog cannot associate it with the behavior that was displayed. Even if the reward is 5 minutes delayed, it doesn't work anymore.

It is the same with people. The 1 year delay between cause (tax cut) and effect (tax refund) may be too long for them to associate the two.

 

Haven’t done mine yet but will have to look at taxable income before charity deductions to compare.

 

How?

The individual mandate penalty in 2018 and 2019
The ACA penalty for being uninsured still applied in 2018. There won’t be a federal penalty for people who are uninsured in 2019 and beyond, but penalties for people who were uninsured in 2018 will be assessed on tax returns filed in 2019

Source: https://www.healthinsurance.org/obamacare/obamacare-penalty-calculator/
Follow us: @EyeOnInsurance on Twitter| healthinsurance.org on Facebook

 

And why is that?

 

When they saw their paychecks increase last Jan/Feb, they should have looked into it then.
The tax cut with the pay check increase should be cancelled out on returns, all things being equal.
But the middle class didn't really see a tax cut. Just the deductions changed around. If one itemized in prior years, they likely won't see any decrease at all.

 

why, they Trusted Trump, he said it was his tax cuts.... your right they should of assumed Trump was lying

 

Not at all, they should have a clue as to their deductions and adjusted properly, Trump had nothing to do with it.

More class warfare on your part.

 

My taxes were $2000 over last year.

Instead of spending five hours (plus recordkeeping) to fill out six forms, I spent twenty minutes filling out the basic form 1040.

Also... Since my income rose by $16,000 over last year, I feel like I came out ahead.