How many of you people are retired? Are you benefiting from the new federal tax rate?

[Uncle TK]

I may drop into the next lower bracket, which would give me a 3% cut over last year's taxes. (No Correct)

The 1st 24,000 you pay Zero Tax (Married)
The Next 19,050 of income you pay 1,905 in taxes
19,051 to 77,400 you pay 12% on income between 19,051 and 77,400 not 12% of taxable income.
Each bracket works the same

 

[Annie]

Have had this conversation with the wife a number of times... she didn't want to change my deductions to bring home more each month, as she reasoned that we wouldn't save as much of that at a time and preferred the idea of a big windfall in April. I will admit, the last 2 years of this have felt very nice to get that big refund (on paper) but every penny went to back taxes from a couple of years ago when I was out of work for half the year.

This year, we will be getting a very large refund due to this - something she had planned for and is eagerly looking toward doing some remodeling on the house she's been wanting to do. Unfortunately, we had some big expenses this month in helping my parents move and spent a ton we weren't planning on, and still have some other outstanding debt. I texted her tonight and told her I don't think we should be spending money on home improvements or vacation (drat!) until we take care of some of that stuff. Her response was a very terse, "Ok." I'm afraid I might be in the doghouse...

She did agree a few weeks ago that we should change our deductions, when I showed her how much extra monthly income it would net, and that we could put that in a money market account or something and earn at least something on it throughout the year, instead of it sitting in the .gov's bank account and earning us nothing.

Sadly, looking at the tables posted above, I am in one of only 2 tax brackets that got absolutely no rate reduction. Drat, again. <sigh> It is possible, since I have cut back a tiny bit on work, if I don't pick up anything extra this year, that I may drop into the next lower bracket, which would give me a 3% cut over last year's taxes. I maxed out my IRA contributions this year, but I don't think it's going to end up being enough to get me into the next lower tax bracket. Is that how it works? It comes off your net taxable income which is used to determine your ultimate bracket? Or is your bracket based strictly on your gross before any deductions?

<edit> Oops. I'm a dumbass. All those deductions contribute to AGI, which gives you your tax bracket. I used one online calculator with some guesstimates of deductions and it told me I was going to get back a LOT less than I thought... I don't know. This **** is all confusing to me.

This is how I feel about this whole thing, too. I'm happy for folks who will be getting money back. We are ALWAYS just over the cusp. Blah.

 

[SMS]

My withholding went down, but I'm moving it back up with additional payments. I claim Married zero and my wife claims Single zero and we still owe every year so I'm concerned that the reduced withholding will help in the short term, but screw us next April. That's the real tell, how it all looks at tax time.

Expanding the income range for the child tax credit will probably help but again, I have to wait until next spring to find out.

 

[TerryMiller]

Universal. Rather than buying a spotting scope, I bought a camera hoping to use as a spotting scope, and tether to tablet to have a larger picture rather than looking through the eyepiece.
Zoom lens plus digital zoom built into the camera.

It should work fine, although using digital zoom makes for pictures that are less sharp and may even be blurred. Make sure the camera is on a firm tripod. While viewing the image on the tablet will be fine because it isn't an image to "save" and print, if you want photos of your results, take those afterwards. With digital zoom, the camera is averaging the data of the image to zoom instead of having the glass optics of the lens doing it.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

We always tried to make sure we had to pay in a small amount each year. It generally worked out that we'd owe a couple hundred to the Feds but might get a small amount back from the state. A couple times it worked out that we'd owe a small amount to the state as well as the Feds. It didn't matter to us. We never made a nickel on any money of ours that the Feds or the state held, but made some money on the money we put aside for the taxes.

Woody

 

[NightShade]

Universal. Rather than buying a spotting scope, I bought a camera hoping to use as a spotting scope, and tether to tablet to have a larger picture rather than looking through the eyepiece.
Zoom lens plus digital zoom built into the camera.

Messed with something at one point with my Cannon T3i, anyway don't know that it will work with a tablet without a special cable and software but for a laptop you can use https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/self-help-center/eos-utility and bring up a image on the screen.

Here is what I understand about it though, the sensor has a lifespan so using in for long periods heats it up which wears it over time. Now most people who use a camera in this way are doing photo shoots and such making money so wearing out the camera a little faster is no big deal since the camera is powered on and the sensor is in use for extended periods anyway. If you intend to keep the camera for a long time you may be shortening the lifespan of your purchase.

I did look however and there is a company selling an adapter that will work with tablets and such https://www.tethertools.com/product/case-air-wireless-tethering-system/ which seems like a decent deal since you can use it with pretty much anything and do it wireless.

 

[gerhard1]

What is the rate for singles?

 

[SMS]

Well, the new tax plan is a bust for me. Our income remained mostly the same as last tax year, but we upped our withholding to compensate for the reduction in withholding....and we still owe in the thousands.

I actually thought it was going to work out better but I guess not.

Hearing the same from a lot of friends and family too.

 

[Gunbuffer]

We netted 7-8k more because of reduced withholding and we get back 2k, same as last year.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'll have to get a report from our accountant before I know how it's affected us.