Did our taxes today

[disneysteve]

I met with our CPA today to do our taxes. I don't have the numbers back yet of course but I think we'll make out okay.

We did spend a little time at the end talking about how we will be screwed by Trump's tax increases. He and I had already talked about that some but got into it in more detail today. Basically I'll earn more income and be able to deduct less against it so our taxes will go up significantly, but that's exactly what I expected. We don't earn nearly enough to be in the group that will benefit from any cuts included under Trump's plan which was designed to help the rich.

I'll update when I have our final 2017 tax results.

[bjl584]

The tax code wasn't written for W2 earners. We're all expendable.
I'm thinking I'm going to be in the same situation as you.

[Jluke]

did you discuss if you fully max your 401k (18.5k plus the catchup) if that would help for 2018???

or are you not mathematically able to move down into a lower tax bracket?

I owed $700 federal and probably $60 to the state this year.

[disneysteve]

did you discuss if you fully max your 401k (18.5k plus the catchup) if that would help for 2018???

It will help a little. I'm already putting in a little over the 18.5K. I just have to up it to the full 24.5K. That won't be enough to offset the new tax increases though. Bottom line is that we'll still pay a lot more in taxes for 2018 thanks to the president and his peers.

[tripods68]

It will help a little. I'm already putting in a little over the 18.5K. I just have to up it to the full 24.5K. That won't be enough to offset the new tax increases though. Bottom line is that we'll still pay a lot more in taxes for 2018 thanks to the president and his peers.

Leaving in HCOLA states like New Jersey and California screwed us the most with the new tax law.

We are lucky that we paid fewer taxes in 2017 by simply putting more $$ into pretax accounts like 401K, 457, & 403b, both to our mandatory pension contributions. We lowered our Taxable Income even more last year compared to 2016. For 2018, we increased to even more pre-tax contributions to all the buckets available to us in the hopes we continue to pay less in taxes next year.

But yeah it sucks paying Uncle!

[~bs]

generally hcol states with high property tax are the worse, then hcol states

my state has low property tax but very high cost of living. the nerfing of itemized deductions will hurt in the long run.

[Like2Plan]

We lost a lot of deductions, but our tax rate dropped- so, a net decrease overall. I am surprised that your taxes are going up (so much). Will you get a chance to run this years’ numbers through tax-caster to compare?

[msomnipotent]

Our CPA went over next years taxes with us and we will lose almost all of our write offs but we will get about $1,000 more refunded. Maybe even more now that we are putting more into the 401k and 529. She said so far it looks like we will just be taking the standard deduction and won't need a pro next year, so that is an additional $300 savings.

[disneysteve]

Our CPA went over next years taxes with us and we will lose almost all of our write offs but we will get about $1,000 more refunded. Maybe even more now that we are putting more into the 401k and 529. She said so far it looks like we will just be taking the standard deduction and won't need a pro next year, so that is an additional $300 savings.

Sounds good.

I haven't gotten everything back yet. We were still clarifying some projections for 2018. Hopefully he'll get it back to me this week. I'm curious to see it all.

[greenskeeper]

planning to do ours this evening, i've got the rusty nail mix ready.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

it says we'll get a huge refund next year because we no long lose exemptions and maybe a child tax credit.

[rennigade]

Somehow we ended up getting around $3k back. Guess our calculations on what we paid in per paycheck were way off. Whatever...its all getting donated to our $5500 property tax bill.

[snafu]

rennegade, great to get a larger return than anticipated. Where will you re-direct the sums set aside for property tax?

[rennigade]

rennegade, great to get a larger return than anticipated. Where will you re-direct the sums set aside for property tax?

meh...most will argue I gave uncle same a tax free loan throughout the year. I agree with that but it is what it is. Well $1k is due now so that will be going towards the bill...the rest will just sit in an online savings account earning 1.5% interest. Pretty minimal but safe.

[disneysteve]

We got our return back. We made out okay for 2017. We are getting refunds totaling $1,590. Of that, $1,054 will go to my SEP-IRA contribution.

Our CPA also did a projection for 2018 with the new tax code and, as expected, we will get whacked by Trump's tax increases. We will pay about $6,000 more in 2018 than we did in 2017. Part of that will be due to my income being higher but the rest of it will be do to changes to the tax code.

The 2018 prediction is based on certain assumptions and there are some things I might be able to do to lower the impact of the changes. It will also depend on how much is earned through interest, dividends, and capital gains which is unpredictable. He just ran the forecast based on the 2017 numbers. So that $6,000 figure may or may not be accurate. But I'm sure nothing I do will lower it dramatically.