Anyone nervous to do their taxes?

I'm pretty sure we file married. I need to check.

Ok. And to make things even more confusing with that W4 form that you file with your employer, is that selection in Box 3, has absolutely zero to do with how you actually file your tax return with the IRS. I am sure you do file your yearly return as Married. But that box doesn't care about that at all. It only has to do with which withholding table it uses to take the tax money out of your paychecks. I've been saying for years they need to make this form and worksheet way clearer than it is, I work in HR. So that's the thing to check with work and it sounds like you were going to be revisiting your selections anyway soon. 'Married but withholding as single' will take more out of your check so you don't owe. You can probably leave yourself with 1 allowance doing that and get closer to IRS net zero, which is the goal. Your spouse may likely have to as well, but see how much that takes out and estimate from there with what you owed this year.

I definitely don't want to confuse your W4 form with your actual tax return here.
 
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Ok. And to make things even more confusing with that W4 form that you file with your employer, is that selection in Box 3, has absolutely zero to do with how you actually file your tax return with the IRS. I am sure you do file your yearly return as Married. But that box doesn't care about that at all. It only has to do with which withholding table it uses to take the tax money out of your paychecks. I've been saying for years they need to make this form and worksheet way clearer than it is, I work in HR. So that's the thing to check with work and it sounds like you were going to be revisiting your selections anyway soon. 'Married but withholding as single' will take more out of your check so you don't owe. You can probably leave yourself with 1 allowance doing that and get closer to IRS net zero, which is the goal. Your spouse may likely have to as well, but see how much that takes out and estimate from there with what you owed this year.

I definitely don't want to confuse your W4 form with your actual tax return here.
Thank you. I'll take a look at it because I am way tired of paying. It already feels like a fortune is taken out of my check but obviously not enough.
 
Thank you. I'll take a look at it because I am way tired of paying. It already feels like a fortune is taken out of my check but obviously not enough.

Between FICA, health care, "normal" retirement saving, and other pre-tax items (life insurance, etc), and then state and local income taxes, my dad used to say to only expect to see 50-60 cents on every $1 that you actually earn show up in your check. That way, you weren't gonna be disappointed when you opened up the envelope. Everything's electronic now, but everything's still the same:)...I just double-checked my spouse's check, and now with the lower rates and withholding, we still don't get more than 60 cents for every dollar he makes (we get 59.5 cents)...and we aren't in the rich brackets (we don't break the 22% level), we only save for 1 401K (not 2), and we have pretty basic health insurance (taking a "base" plan and not a "high" plan), or it'd be a lot uglier...it used to be we got even less, but last year has changed the withholding to make us get a little more back each check...

PS - Now, at least we are getting the retirement eventually, but it still "hurts" in the now:)...
 
Just filed with credit Karma. Easy peasy. No surprises. Did a little better than last year. Didn't change our withholding but my husbands pension check was a little bigger each month (less Federal taxes taken out); we only "overpaid" $236. They don't take out any state taxes (CA) so we owe them. We are pretty close to $0 net.
 


Just submitted the fed taxes...happily surprised:). I thought my tax refund would be gone, but no...I still got a pretty healthy one, even having gotten the paycheck wage increase due to the withholding changes this year (the increased child tax credit was more helpful than I thought it would be)...here's hoping I didn't screw it all up (what a weirdly looking fillable form this year)...

Of course, I think I won't quite do as well at the state level, but those taxes are lower for me overall to start, so if I pay a few hundred, I'll still be ahead:)...

PS - And yes, my federal taxes were down as a %...my spouse made more income, so I computed on a % basis vs a $ one:)...
 
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All of my stuff has now been sent to the accountant. It typically takes about 3 weeks for them to get it done. We have W2 income plus 3 different Schedule Cs... I'd like to think we're not that complicated, but maybe we are. I have friends who make an appointment with their accountant, go in and sit down and walk away with it all done, but our guy doesn't work that way - with anyone. I think his volume is too high. He does a great job though, so I can't really complain. Now the wait begins. But a huge stress is lifted off once I get everything turned in.
 
So chiming back in with our specific situation. Lots of people talking about effective tax rate now and yeah that is the more salient aspect. Seems like the majority actually had a lower effective tax rate. That was not the case for us. Yes our 2017 refund was $3,000 and this year is $1,300 for Federal and that is a big difference. We finally sat down and went over the comparison.

In 2017 our effective tax rate was 6.97% of adjusted gross income and in 2018 it was 7.56%. There were more withholdings from each paycheck in 2017 than in 2018 so we did have more money per paycheck in our account due to that but removing that aspect the tax law adjustment cost us a net $433 and that was primarily the loss of personal exemption--that was the main downside to us. What saved us was having the standard deduction be what it is now. We're only 4 1/2 years into the mortgage so the amount we pay is still relatively high overtime of course that will go down.

The good news was my husband had done a brief guessing sometime last year and he had estimated it would cost us about $1,000 more but it ended up only being $433 so that is a positive :laughing:.
 


We are still waiting for 1099s on one of my DH's investment accounts. We are going to take our info to an accountant for the first time this year. With W-2s, 1900s, Schedule C, DD's 529 plan and her scholarships, and the investment accounts, I was just getting concerned and decided to use a friend of ours who does taxes.

I am still worried about what this year will bring.
 
My refund was just deposited in my account this morning. I was pleasantly surprised that amount was a little a bit more this year. Of course I had less 1099 forms and put more in IRA so that helped. I need to get more organized this year on donations/deductions.
 
We are still waiting for 1099s on one of my DH's investment accounts. We are going to take our info to an accountant for the first time this year. With W-2s, 1900s, Schedule C, DD's 529 plan and her scholarships, and the investment accounts, I was just getting concerned and decided to use a friend of ours who does taxes.

I am still worried about what this year will bring.

I'm a DIY girl with so many things in life, but finding a trusted accountant was one of the best things we've ever done. We have W2, 1099, & 3 Schedule Cs... and we used to live in a state with state income taxes. I couldn't estimate our taxes for the coming year for the life of me. I finally gave up and found a guy we knew was knowledgeable about our particular situation and we could trust. That was 2006. When we moved out of state, I cried at the thought of having to find someone new. But he told me I didn't have to, and we're still with him. It's worth every penny we pay him every year to do our taxes and estimate our withholding/payments for the coming year.
 
Well, it is a really bad situation for us. We made $15,000 more in 2018 vs 2017. And we owe $5400 more in taxes in 2018 vs. 2017. Thankfully a refund of almost $1000 from the state. I had set aside about $2000 for this, so we are almost there, but JEEZ.

I am looking at total federal taxes owed, including withholding, not comparing our tax refund last year to taxes owed this year. We did not have enough withheld to breakeven or get a refund but that is not the problem I am whining about, lol. THAT is on us, and we will make adjustments for 2019.

I think it is due to the SALT restrictions this year (we live in NJ) and all the deductions they removed or restricted, like work related expenses. We have no young kids to benefit from some of those new rules. We are not "high income" enough to benefit from lower capital gains taxes or whatever either.

It is what it is, but a shocker. I was worried but was starting to believe that it might be ok with the other changes offsetting the SALT thing. Nope. My daughter said, maybe take less trips. i said, well, maybe NEXT year, but this year is booked!
 
Well, it is a really bad situation for us. We made $15,000 more in 2018 vs 2017. And we owe $5400 more in taxes in 2018 vs. 2017. Thankfully a refund of almost $1000 from the state. I had set aside about $2000 for this, so we are almost there, but JEEZ.

I am looking at total federal taxes owed, including withholding, not comparing our tax refund last year to taxes owed this year. We did not have enough withheld to breakeven or get a refund but that is not the problem I am whining about, lol. THAT is on us, and we will make adjustments for 2019.

I think it is due to the SALT restrictions this year (we live in NJ) and all the deductions they removed or restricted, like work related expenses. We have no young kids to benefit from some of those new rules. We are not "high income" enough to benefit from lower capital gains taxes or whatever either.

It is what it is, but a shocker. I was worried but was starting to believe that it might be ok with the other changes offsetting the SALT thing. Nope. My daughter said, maybe take less trips. i said, well, maybe NEXT year, but this year is booked!

I hear you. We are also comparing taxes paid not refund owed and the SALT restrictions and other lost deductions hosed us up BIG TIME. We live in Maryland. We do have one child but apparently that wasn't enough. This "tax cut" wasn't meant for our household I guess..... We won't likely cut our travel budget but will have to look at the budget as a whole to account for the increased taxes being paid out.
 
So far, it is very bad for me. I thought I had a handle on where my 2018 taxes would land, near the $4K mark for federal, state and city combined once my deductions came out. I must have made an error somewhere because so far, federal alone, has me over $3K more than planned. In reviewing, I think I missed a few deductions, but I doubt I will get it more than $500 lower. I will make more adjustments in 2019 to prep for those taxes.
 
I hear you. We are also comparing taxes paid not refund owed and the SALT restrictions and other lost deductions hosed us up BIG TIME. We live in Maryland. We do have one child but apparently that wasn't enough. This "tax cut" wasn't meant for our household I guess..... We won't likely cut our travel budget but will have to look at the budget as a whole to account for the increased taxes being paid out.
Wasn’t meant for mine either. My effective federal and state tax rates went up. I would have been totally screwed over had they removed HH status (like they initially were talking about) but still this reform wasn’t great for a lot of single parents:(
 
Folks that lost work related expense write offs, those with the capped out SALT deductions and it seems those with no/1 child are all categories that seem to have gotten the raw end of the deal here. Seems to be the 75-125K family income folks taking the brunt of this. We made less and paid more in tax this year.
 
Married two income families, especially those without kids, paid dearly for the marriage penalty for a long time. I am happy they got that corrected and the income brackets adjusted accordingly. No couple should have to pay more taxes married than if they never married at all. That did help us out this year.
 
Folks that lost work related expense write offs, those with the capped out SALT deductions and it seems those with no/1 child are all categories that seem to have gotten the raw end of the deal here. Seems to be the 75-125K family income folks taking the brunt of this. We made less and paid more in tax this year.

I think it's not generic 75K-125K that have taken the brunt...it's that income bracket with few or no kids that used to itemize and be close or over the new standard deduction by using SALT...getting the 3% tax rate deduction doesn't cover losing the 8K in exemptions and/or the loss of property taxes in itemizing (see NJ, where I know those taxes are ridiculous, even on middle class houses - although that's not the fed's fault:).

Now, that being said, those taxpayers getting hit probably paid some of the lowest overall federal tax rates on the board to start with, so the new tax laws did probably better balance the load between folks in the same income level across the nation.

I know I've seen many folks with tax raises who have posted their overall taxed rates...and they are still under mine (both my old and new one), at the same income bracket (the 22% one)...
 
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