Very Large increase in 2018 Taxes

[bzybee08]

I am also sick of people lumping this whole issue into a 'lack of with holdings'.. that has been proven false months ago. There were several changes in the tax law that affected people outside of simply a failure to withhold more tax.

[jiminy71]

I agree. Many people were affected negatively SPECIFICALLY by the 'Tax Cuts and Jobs act'. I am one of them.  My situation is unique in that I normally deduct job-related business expenses, since I work at home and my employer does not pay any expense (not even internet). This caused me to lose over 2,000 worth of refund in deductions I have received for 15 out of the last 17 years.  That coupled with the changes in state/local taxes and a few other things caused my taxes OWED to go up approx. $2,500.  So for those saying 'just adjust withholding', that may apply to some but certainly not everyone. I had to adjust my withholding quite a bit to offset not getting these deductions for next year.  I did not adjust withholding in 2018 because it was basically impossible to PREDICT what the change in taxes would mean for my bottom line.

[Clark]

I don't want a large refund or even a refund, I agree, try to be as exact as you can when estimating taxes.  I for one would not mind owing a couple hundred instead of giving tax free money to the FEDS.  If we could some how stop spending more than we get (like most Americans) all of our tax situations would benefit.

[Spartan]

I have gotten over $4,000 back every year for over 10 years.  Virtually nothing changed in 2018, and I am only getting $300 back.  Uncle Sam keeps hurting the average guy.  The American Dream of owning your home and the only real deduction any longer is now capped.  The capped deduction of $10,000 for State, Local, Property Tax and Sales Tax, is what is eliminating the refunds I enjoyed for years.  I am not political, but I am very mad about what the current group has done.  Everyone I know is so upset about how much less they are getting back, or how much more they now have to pay.  And, they say this is making America Great Again?

[anhenry546]

You couldn't itemize business expenses and such but the TCJA offset that by DOUBLING standard deductions. So if you truly were lower to middle class it should not have affected you much at all. People who make more money sure, but what TCJA was meant to do was help the people who needed help.

[anhenry546]

@bzbee08 Of course it's going to affect some people, but the people it's was meant to help (lower and middle class) it should not have caused much of a change to unless they didn't adjust. I'd like to see where that was proven false. There will never be anything that helps everyone, in order to help some you have to take away from others. In this case to help people struggling the people with more money had to take the hit. There is no one size fits all when it comes to taxes so yes, of course it's going to affect some more than others in a negative way.

[Spartan]

Here's the results of making America Great Again for me:

Refund Analysis (from TurboTax)
2014 - $5,056
2015 - $5,323
2016 - $5,210
2017 - $3,859  (down because bonus was paid in Feb '18 rather than Dec '17)
2018 - $   233

Makes my stomach sick.

[anhenry546]

@Spartan
And here's mine:
2016- $3,544
2017- $3,896
2018- $4,312
2019- $6,879
Keep making America Great Again!
There will always be people who have problems with change. That's never going to end. But the greater good is what counts. I'm sorry if some of you had to take a hit so that millions would do better but that's life. The greater good will always come first.

[LudwigVan_fan]

without changing my withholding, from 2017 to 2018.

I understand you didn't change anything....BUT, do your employer change the actual amount of withholding?  For many people, the actual dollars of withholding decreased, and the net paycheck increased.  You mentioned you received a 2.7% increase in salary, with the change in net income, you might not have noticed how the actual withholding of Fed tax worked out.  The withholding tables changed.

Personally, I did not change my withholding.  BUT, the entity doing the withholding decreased it by around $100 per check, and the net take home went up about $100.   That is one possible explanation.