Summary of 34 tax changes

[Nutria]

My state income tax is close to 5% of our income and our property taxes are $10,000 each year. This will definitely impact me. I'm heading to the county office next week to prepay my property taxes for 2018.

Since $10K is 5% of $200,000 I honestly can't work up heaps of sympathy for your plight.

[Gailete]

I think we get to keep our property tax deductions as well as state and local income tax. Our property taxes alone eat up over 18% of our income. When hubby starting building the house a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, he was young and didn't anticipate that the taxes would jump so much when he finished the house especially since he used so many scavenged parts. The cost of the house is killing us between taxes and propane which over $2000/year.

I've been working on trying to find cheaper insurance today and the first time that he said if the house burned down we would sell the property and move somewhere warm - says the folks that live next door to Erie, PA and all the snow. We have mountains of the stuff in our front yard. He is sick of it and so am I since I essentially am housebound until it is safe to go out with paths everywhere cleared and/or melted.

[disneysteve]

This will definitely impact me.

Since $10K is 5% of $200,000 I honestly can't work up heaps of sympathy for your plight.

I'm sure nobody is here looking for sympathy but it is going to cost a lot of people thousands of dollars per year. It doesn't matter how much you earn. Suddenly seeing your taxes go up by a 4 or 5 figure amount isn't any fun. So I sympathize with that, especially since I may well be one of those people.

[moneybags]

Since $10K is 5% of $200,000 I honestly can't work up heaps of sympathy for your plight.

Did I ask for your sympathy? My post was not a complaint, just factual.

[Gailete]

In my state if you are over 65 or disabled you can apply for a property tax rebate. Not quite 65 but I am disabled and so some years I'm eligible and other years when our income is up, I'm not. The rebate is just a small fraction of what we pay in property taxes but it is a help. This year I have been trying hard to set aside money for taxes in its own savings account. When I got the rebate this year, it was deposited to help pay for those taxes. Setting that money aside this year sure helped although it is a killer to earn $100 and to then send $30 to the tax account. Since we pay both income and property taxes out of this account, I don't set aside just what we would owe for income taxes.

Being self-employed and having to pay estimated taxes and all that, can be grueling when you have no idea how your income will go for the year. I don't know how other self-employed people do it. This year I did put new habits in place to try to handle the money better, so it will be interesting once I get the new tax rules figured out and how we have to deal with them.

I have found that having and developing new good habits, sure helps keep things on a better keel than scatter drilling what you are doing, like getting a really big payday to think 'oh goody, now we can take a vacation!' Nope it means you set a bunch away for taxes, make payments on credit cards, fill up the pantry or whatever that will put you into a better long term financial state. Especially true when you have no idea when you are going to get another 'payday'

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

The calculator corn18 posted predicts that my husband and I will save $92 in the first year. However if insurance goes up 10% per year, that expense will overwhelm the $92.

[Gailete]

I just tried that calculator and we came out at zero in taxes which is about what I thought it would be. We are expecting to get a big payout for a piano project he is trying to finish and then that will be the end of that, but it will shoot our taxes up for 2018 I think to around $1100 or in that vicinity, but that should be the last time that happens as physically he just can't do the work anymore.

[Singuy]

Just used a tax calculator that also has a small business side.

Total income taxable is 270k after pass through
Total taxable income drops down to 240k due to the 20% deduction for small businesses.
Effective tax rate is 13.4% on 270k.
We don't have state income tax.

Confirms that I will be seeing a 35k+ tax break for 2018 over 2017.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Nice you get a pass through singuy