Where Is The Refund? Tax Code Changes Causing Confusion

[jpak]

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/02/08/tax-code-refunds/

<snip>

“If their whole strategy was to get a tax refund they should have lowered their exemptions. I don’t think that happened,” said Hanzich.

“I went from getting a huge check to writing a medium-sized check. That’s frustrating,” said Joe Vasco.

“I moved to Texas and just moved back for family reasons. Because in Texas I kept a lot more of my money,” said Rich Krebs.

“It’s terrible as a business owner. You have to pay, pay, pay,” said salon owner Mark Akhabain.

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It's happening....hope people wake up....

[mantis49]

1. I am finding all the focus on size of refund to be off the mark.

The real question is: What percentage of one's income was paid in federal taxes? I think that is the true test. Focusing on the size of the refund is misleading.

I have not figured mine yet, but that is what I will be looking at and comparing to the last 3-4 years.

[MichMan]

3. Agreed, I find the fixation on refunds ridiculous

[jcgoldie]

4. The size of the refund is exactly the point

No-one is arguing that tax rates increased by percentage. What happened is that they sent employers new withholding guidelines so that people would see a bump in their paychecks and republicans could claim a political victory over their huge giveaway to billionaires and corporations. They withheld less to give the appearance of more tax relief than really existed for the middle class and now its being revealed when people don't get the refunds they were expecting. Bait and switch.

[EleanorR]

6. Exactly, republicans touted the extra money people were seeing in their paychecks as a repub win

Remember Ryan and the buck fifty extra the secretary was going to use toward a Costco membership?

It was republican victory that people saw bigger paychecks, and it's a republican failure that it turns out that was all smoke and mirrors. Their gullible followers were duped.

[Tink41]

5. My finding

I essentially lost 4000 worth of write offs for job expenses. Plus the loss of property taxes, mortg insurance

[Recursion]

7. It never feels good to write a check for two grand

And I'm incredibly lucky: my HR office did the math ahead of time and warned us how much we would need to keep on hand. I think with the increased deduction my total tax bill actually went down slightly, but that's not the point: I've been planning to write this check for a year and I'm still pissed at Paul Ryan for it. The people it's catching off guard are going to want blood.

[MichMan]

2. Taxes are the only bill that people would rather overpay all year and get some back a year later

I really don't understand it

You never hear of anyone overpaying their electric bill every month so they can get a refund months later.

I haven't filed yet, so I don't know what is going to happen. I am hoping that since I haven't itemized for a decade, that mine will go down. I will look at the total taxes owed and compare with last year, not how much I have to pay compared to what was withheld.