It's Tax Time. How Did You Do?

Nope she is on Medicad, and with that never paid a fine......A real life welfare queen I guess?

 

Your federal income tax will be $7000 higher than last year? Have you completed your taxes yet? If so, can you explain why your tax is so much higher?

Seth

 

Perhaps she, like me, actually pays her own bills. Long ago I came out of a divorce broke, literally lived in a storage space for a winter- and without insurance, was found to have a deadly cancer requiring surgery. I spoke to the doctor; told him my financial situation. Set up conditions where the surgery could be done in the least expensive way. He cut his surgical fee dramatically, made arrangements with the hospital and other operating staff- all of whom joined him in support of me. I paid them off over a short time. It's called personal responsibility and integrity. New concept to many, but to those of us who are older, it was the mark of a man. Not making yourself a burden on the rest of society because it's inconvenient to stand on your own two feet- and earning your own self respect in the process, as well as the respect of those you treated honorably rather than expect they just carry you free. I realize that probably sounds strange and impractical to you, but in fact it is the way honorable people conduct themselves.

 

Ha! That's either a really bad problem or a really good one!

 

I am not the financially irresponsible one, she is. I am paying my health insurance premiums every month, although I, as she, would be more excited to use the money for other purposes. However, I realize that it is a responsibility to be covered.

As to your story, tell me how many people go to the ER to get cancer treatment and can pay out of pocket? The average person would be bankrupted for life. That's why so many set up go fund me pages for cancer treatment, or other expensive medical care, because they don;t have the money and never will have the money to pay back the bills.

So, the more likely outcome is that the people without insurance go to the ER, get treatment, and then the hospital never gets paid and distributes the bill to the other paying customers who have insurance, i.e. my bill goes up. Thank you Spooky.

P.S.: I wonder why you are attacking me as the irresponsible one, while defending Spooky, who actually IS the irresponsible on. Oh, I know why, because it fits your political agenda.

 

The other thing I noticed this year is that employers adjusted the amount of withholding this year to reflect the lower tax rates. My refund this year was much, much lower than last year's refund, but, as I said, the actual amount of tax I paid was lower. So again, the size of your refund isn't the issue. The issue is the actual amount of tax owed for the year compared to last year.

 

Our Tax refund was larger by about 1k this year so we are very happy with our crumbs.

 

Well that's nice, but there are factors that effect the tax refund such as the amount of withholding.

What I'm trying to find out is whether the actual amount of tax was higher or lower this year over last year.

 

Seth, you can already tell where this is going. Trump fans received a huge windwall, and Trump opponents did not. Curious, isn't it?

Myself, I will be honest when I finally file my tax return. My guess is, I'll get a bigger refund that last year, but nothing life changing.

 

they never see the big picture, just the bottom line... all things being the same, ie: gross income, then there was also less witholdings, ergo less paid in, ergo less returned... yet overall less paid... as for those huge deductions ??? every year??? somethings fishy & it ain't the 'hottie' sittin next to me...

 

I checked and it stayed about the same. Our state taxes went down by $50. but our federal went up by $200 though I did get a raise so that makes sense.

 

You may get a larger or smaller refund, but I don't think I need to explain why to you. What I'm interested in is whether you pay more or less federal tax - the amount on Line 15 - over last year.

 

Must have been a helluva raise to counteract the lower tax rates we have now. My wife and I also received raises in 2018 resulting in about $5000 more in gross income. I ended up with substantially more taxable income (the amount the tax is applied to after all deductions) than last year, and yet my actual amount of tax paid went down because the lower rates in the new tax law offset the rise in taxable income. So that's why I said you must have gotten a helluva good raise.

Seth

 

I think my wife made much more this year then last actually now that I think about it.

 

My taxes worked out perfectly.

I paid like $150.

 

Don't you vote for democrats?

 

You mean you had to pay $150 to add to the amount withheld to pay your full tax? What I'm trying to get at (I should have been more clear in my OP) is the actual total amount of tax owed and paid. People are telling me about their refunds or their payoff to Uncle Sam, but what I'm interested in finding out is about that number on Line 15 of your tax return. That is the actual amount of tax you paid for your 2018 income. And then compare that to the corresponding number on your 2017 taxes. I'm asking if that number is higher or lower this year. For me it was lower which is good.

 

That very well might account for why you paid $200 more in income taxes. My wife and I had a $5000 increase in our income, and we ended up paying less in taxes. But if either of us had had a really large increase, like $10-20k we might have ended up paying more. What I suspect is that under the old tax law more of your wife's increased income would have been taxed than it was under the new law. I suspect that you two actually saved money under the new tax law even though you had $200 worth of higher tax bill to pay. I suspect it would have been even higher under the old law.

 

Oh I see. You'd also need to clarify what bracket they're in....that would be the main effect.

I.E. you'd have to compare bracket to bracket for a good comparison.

 

Nothing but SS total less than 32k.

 

If you are going to the ER for cancer treatment you are a damn fool.

 

Yes, there are many, many variables - like if they earned substantially more or less than last year - so this is not a scientific study. It would be a major undertaking on an online forum to make it absolutely scientific.

This is much more anecdotal. Just trying to get a general idea of whether the new tax laws helped or hurt.

Perhaps after this thread runs its course, I'll make another poll with a whole bunch of variables in it and see what happens.

 

Oh I see. From the IRS website ...

Only Social Security. If Social Security was a taxpayer’s only income in 2016, their benefits may not be taxable. They also may not need to file a federal income tax return.

So the new tax law has no effect on you. But thanks for answering!

 

I just mean it would be hard to tell if your bracket changed, when comparing it to last year.

We'd need people who didn't change income brackets to compare last year to this year to get a basic idea.

 

However- I was Broke, I had just come out of a divorce- and a bankruptcy. I couldn't pay- and I told them so in advance. What I wasn't is a quitter; I knew how to make money. Did spooky say she wouldn't pay her bills? Or did you just assume that would be the case, because it would be what you would do if you didn't? And I didn't go to the ER, I went to a doctor- and I was honest up front about the situation. These days, they aren't used to that, and like most people are happy to give a hand-up or support to those who aren't trying to use them. When someone trusts me- hell will freeze over before I violate that trust. It is how I was raised, it is what I know is right, and it is how I live.

You are the one discrediting the option to do that, implying that without insurance you are automatically a cheat. NOT so. There are a lot of honorable people, who would die before they would rip others off by taking advantage of them the way you think Spooky might be. Unfortunately, the number of such people in our society is steadily shrinking, and that is a great shame.