Bush tax cut: Did your taxes go down?

[Chicago526]

Just curious. One of the things Bush is touting in his campaign is that he (and Congress) lowered taxes for all American's who pay them.

My taxes went down about $14 per month. Let me tell you what a blessing and a relief THAT was! My quality of life has just gone through the roof! However, I make less than $40,000 and am single with no kids. So maybe people who are married with kids saw more tax relief. Before I go running around screaming at the t.v. "what tax relief?" everytime I hear him say it, I thought I'd try to get more info on the subject.

So, did you see your Federal income tax go down, go up, or stay the same?

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I'm single with 1 child. I think I get an extra $7/paycheck....which works out to $14/month. Time to buy the house I've been eyeing!

 

[cynsaun]

Our taxes went down.

 

[Pop Daddy]

yes, I am now rich

 

[jrydberg]

Single with 1 child. My taxes went down appreciably.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Everyone's taxes went down in some fashion -- it's possible that your income level is higher than it was the year before, however, so you wouldn't notice much of a difference. I mean, we got a much smaller refund this year than the year before, but it doesn't mean we didn't pay a smaller percentage of taxes, just that we made more than the year before, so our tax situation was different.

 

[SoonerKate]

Single, no kids. My taxes haven't budged; my income hasn't changed.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I always think I would like a buck, even if only a buck, to remain with me than go to taxes. So far, we all seem happy. Mine are less too.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

Our taxes went down, but we also made about $32k less in 2003 than we made in 2002. I never went and calculated what they would have been at our old income level.

 

[cati]

xx

 

[goudaman40]

Chicago

My husband and I have been married for almost 10 years and this was the first year that we say a refund. When we first got married and filed taxes - we had the wonderful marriage penality tax - and got to pay $1500 for being married all of 3 weeks thanks to a bill Clinton put into effect that year.

We always have to pay taxes, because we don't have kids, don't own a home, and make less than 6 figures a year combined. Hubby is in military and that pay is not the best around either. The kicker of military pay, is that the tax payers dollars pays the military salary, but then the military member is taxed again on the already taxed money.

Yes, we did see a break and I am very thankful that married people get the same tax credits as single members!

 

[AirForceRocks]

Married, two kids, and our taxes are $2400 less than they would have been without the cuts.

Unless you got nailed with AMT, everyone that actually pays income taxes pays at least a little bit less than they would have without the tax cuts. And that can't necessarily be figured out by looking at withholding or refund amounts. If you don't believe you got a cut, then you need to look at what your taxes were with the cuts and then look at a 2000 tax table to see what they would have been without the cuts.

 

[Chicago526]

I know mine went down $14 a month cuz I looked at the federal withholding amount right after the tax cut and before I got my raise (the tax cut went into effect well before my review/raise date), and it went down by about $14 a month.

Personaly, I'd rather have that $168 ($14 per month times 12 months) a year go towards funding education or saving social security, but I appreciate the fact that not everyone agrees with me. I just wanted to find out if other's experianced a meaningful drop in taxes, even though I didn't.

 

[bsnyder]

Originally posted by Chicago526


Personaly, I'd rather have that $168 ($14 per month times 12 months) a year go towards funding education or saving social security, but I appreciate the fact that not everyone agrees with me. I just wanted to find out if other's experianced a true drop in taxes, even though I didn't.

Well, what's stopping you.? You certainly have the option of donating that $168 back to the government.

I am definitely better off with the tax cuts.

Hey AFR, when we debated this one time before, did we ever determine what the income threshold is where one actually owes federal income taxes? I seem to remember we did, but can't remember the figure.

 

[AirForceRocks]

I know mine went down $14 a month cuz I looked at the federal withholding amount right after the tax cut and before I got my raise (the tax cut went into effect well before my review/raise date), and it went down by about $14 a month.

That just means that your withholding went down $14/month, which may or may not be how much your taxes went down. As I said before, the only way to know how much of a decrease you received in taxes is to look at what your taxes were last year, and then use the 2000 tax tables to see what they would have been on the same amount without the cuts.

 

[Galahad]

Yes, Our taxes went down.

 

[Patch'sD]

Mine went down. I figure it is about 1800 per year savings in my pocket. I hope to keep it in my Pocket and not give it to Kerry

 

[AirForceRocks]

A single filer, no kids, with a $40,000 income, taking only the personal exemption and standard deduction would see his or her taxes go from $5589 in 2000 to $4841 in 2003. An annual savings of $748.

Maybe that's not much to some people, but I certainly wouldn't call it nothing.

 

[Chicago526]

Originally posted by bsnyder
Well, what's stopping you.? You certainly have the option of donating that $168 back to the government.

I didn't know you could do that! I just put the few extra bucks in my 401K since I'm not betting on SS being there in 40 years. I blame both Dems and Reps for that, by the way, EVERYONE has blown it, IMHO.

Anyway, the purpose of my post wasn't to debate if the cut was good or bad, but if anyone was helped signifigantly by it. I wasn't, but I didn't want to assume because I didn't see a big break that other's didn't! I'm trying to do the right thing by not taking things at face value!

 

[AirForceRocks]

Anyway, the purpose of my post wasn't to debate if the cut was good or bad, but if anyone was helped signifigantly by it. I wasn't, but I didn't want to assume because I didn't see a big break that other's didn't! I'm trying to do the right thing by not taking things at face value!

Unless you've looked up the actual tax values, you really have no idea how much you were helped by it. You are apparently relying on withholding amounts to determine how much your taxes were cut, which IS taking things at face value.