Just did taxes...annoyed. Other people in the same boat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just did our taxes. Only W-2 income.

Overall we are paying less total tax than last year on slightly higher income (thank you tax cuts!). But we owe over $5k when we usually have a smallish refund.

I know we should its mathematically stupid to complain since we paid less overall but I am super annoyed as this will throw my budgeting into a tailspin.

We both have zero witholdings on our W-4 so this to me seems like some incompetence on part of the government that is blowing my budget up. Other people experience this?

Stupid people like you should volunteer to pay MORE taxes.

Sheesh.

She isn’t stupid. The changes to the withholding tables was a scam to get more people to vote for the GOP in the midterms.

People need to do a check mid year to see if they are on track to hit the right amount of withholding. The IRS site has a simple calculator to help with this. It's not hard people.

This is the dumbest sh#t ever. There should be zero reason for a family or person to do a “withholding check” if their tax situation has not changed in years. Most folks have their kids and mortgage figured out. No one should need to be checking withholding, if their dependent or housing situation has not changed.

Please stop blaming patriot American taxpaying families. Instead, blaming the scumbag Republican politicos who focused this garbage on American families.

Folks were repeatedly told to check their withholdings in light of the changes. Math isn’t that hard. Or maybe it is for lots of liberal arts graduates here with degrees from “sought after” slacs.

Admittedly we missed these notices.

[Anonymous]

The IRS changed the withholding tables because Mnuchin thought it would help the R’s to give people more money back in paychecks before the election. I don’t think it’s fair to blame people for not knowing the govt was screwing up their withholding. People are usually entitled to rely on last year plus the IRS’ changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It happened to us and you can read our example and those from others in other threads. I’m our case we went from a small refund or just about being even to owing $5700. We didn’t realize the extent of the changes and we are far from stupid.

The changes were easy to understand and make adjustments for. So your last sentence is bizarre.

Apparently not SO easy since so many of us now find ourselves unpleasantly surprised. Jesus Christ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The IRS changed the withholding tables because Mnuchin thought it would help the R’s to give people more money back in paychecks before the election. I don’t think it’s fair to blame people for not knowing the govt was screwing up their withholding. People are usually entitled to rely on last year plus the IRS’ changes.

This It was not done in an honest way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It happened to us and you can read our example and those from others in other threads. I’m our case we went from a small refund or just about being even to owing $5700. We didn’t realize the extent of the changes and we are far from stupid.

The changes were easy to understand and make adjustments for. So your last sentence is bizarre.

Apparently not SO easy since so many of us now find ourselves unpleasantly surprised. Jesus Christ.

We are in the same boat and owe almost exactly the same amount.

[Anonymous]

I am a federal government employee. If people were "repeatedly told" to adjust their withholdings then you would think at the very least that federal government employees withholdings would be corrected. They weren't. Personally, I saw news stories that suggested checking and did so. But it was not unreasonable for others to rely on their employers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make about $270,000. I had expected that we would be among those people who ended up paying more tax, but we're not. It's the people who make significantly less than us, probably those who weren't hit with the AMT previously, who seem to be taking the tax hit. Our overall taxes went down (we made about $25,000 more this year, yet are paying about the same amount in taxes as we did before). I was also ready to blame the withholding tables on our $4500 tax underpayment. But that's only $1500 more than last year, and we had $12,000 in capital gains this year compared to last year, so I guess that explains the difference. In 2025, when the AMT changes phase out, I expect we'll be paying more tax. by quite a bit.

Sounds about right. Seems like $100k-$200K is the sweet spot of where people end up owing more if they have high SALT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a federal government employee. If people were "repeatedly told" to adjust their withholdings then you would think at the very least that federal government employees withholdings would be corrected. They weren't. Personally, I saw news stories that suggested checking and did so. But it was not unreasonable for others to rely on their employers.

It was also not unreasonable for people to trust leadership who repeatedly touted the paycheck/withholding table increases as part of your savings under the new tax plan. Gee, thanks for giving me back my own money I’ll then owe at tax time! Thought no one. I do NOT blame people for being confused, and I’m a big proponent for personal responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just did our taxes. Only W-2 income.

Overall we are paying less total tax than last year on slightly higher income (thank you tax cuts!). But we owe over $5k when we usually have a smallish refund.

I know we should its mathematically stupid to complain since we paid less overall but I am super annoyed as this will throw my budgeting into a tailspin.

We both have zero witholdings on our W-4 so this to me seems like some incompetence on part of the government that is blowing my budget up. Other people experience this?

Stupid people like you should volunteer to pay MORE taxes.

Sheesh.

She isn’t stupid. The changes to the withholding tables was a scam to get more people to vote for the GOP in the midterms.

People need to do a check mid year to see if they are on track to hit the right amount of withholding. The IRS site has a simple calculator to help with this. It's not hard people.

This is the dumbest sh#t ever. There should be zero reason for a family or person to do a “withholding check” if their tax situation has not changed in years. Most folks have their kids and mortgage figured out. No one should need to be checking withholding, if their dependent or housing situation has not changed.

Please stop blaming patriot American taxpaying families. Instead, blaming the scumbag Republican politicos who focused this garbage on American families.

This is the flaw in your argument - tax situations did in fact change. It's called being responsible for yourself. Why is this so hard?

+1.

And we all had over a year to prepare.

Anyway, we haven't done our taxes so will see how well we did...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just did our taxes. Only W-2 income.

Overall we are paying less total tax than last year on slightly higher income (thank you tax cuts!). But we owe over $5k when we usually have a smallish refund.

I know we should its mathematically stupid to complain since we paid less overall but I am super annoyed as this will throw my budgeting into a tailspin.

We both have zero witholdings on our W-4 so this to me seems like some incompetence on part of the government that is blowing my budget up. Other people experience this?

This is what happens when people get used to just giving their money to the government each month, with no oversight on how much they are paying. As a small business person who actually has to write the checks, I'm much more aware of the pain of payment each time I make it.

Yes, OP, please be thankful that you owe. Look at it this way: You did not loan the government money, interest free, this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just did our taxes. Only W-2 income.

Overall we are paying less total tax than last year on slightly higher income (thank you tax cuts!). But we owe over $5k when we usually have a smallish refund.

I know we should its mathematically stupid to complain since we paid less overall but I am super annoyed as this will throw my budgeting into a tailspin.

We both have zero witholdings on our W-4 so this to me seems like some incompetence on part of the government that is blowing my budget up. Other people experience this?

Stupid people like you should volunteer to pay MORE taxes.

Sheesh.

There is a reason why the IRS isn't imposing underpayment penalties this year. They adjusted the withholding and so people who have been fine for years with the withholding they selected, now way underwithheld. All because they wanted it to seem like the tax law changes were causing the increase in your paycheck, when it was that they were under withholding to make people feel good and vote republican.

[Anonymous]

Just surprised folks didn't start using 2018 tax return calculators when they became available late Summer 2018. This would have allowed you to adjust withholdings (if applicable) going into Fall 2018.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just surprised folks didn't start using 2018 tax return calculators when they became available late Summer 2018. This would have allowed you to adjust withholdings (if applicable) going into Fall 2018.

Because people think its reasonable to rely on the withholding tables they've been relying on all this time. They believed the republicans who told them it was a tax break and did not realize they were getting played. Why is this so hard to understand? I did adjust my withholding amount, but I can see why lots of people didn't realize it would be an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just did our taxes. Only W-2 income.

Overall we are paying less total tax than last year on slightly higher income (thank you tax cuts!). But we owe over $5k when we usually have a smallish refund.

I know we should its mathematically stupid to complain since we paid less overall but I am super annoyed as this will throw my budgeting into a tailspin.

We both have zero witholdings on our W-4 so this to me seems like some incompetence on part of the government that is blowing my budget up. Other people experience this?

Stupid people like you should volunteer to pay MORE taxes.

Sheesh.

There is a reason why the IRS isn't imposing underpayment penalties this year. They adjusted the withholding and so people who have been fine for years with the withholding they selected, now way underwithheld. All because they wanted it to seem like the tax law changes were causing the increase in your paycheck, when it was that they were under withholding to make people feel good and vote republican.

Yes. The messaging was not sincere! Can’t people see this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just surprised folks didn't start using 2018 tax return calculators when they became available late Summer 2018. This would have allowed you to adjust withholdings (if applicable) going into Fall 2018.

I discovered in September that I was likely to owe 10s of thousands based on the tax tables and some extraordinary capital gains.

I chose to forgo paychecks from October to the end of the year to make sure we got close enough to the amount due and did not have a penalty (i.e. have my entire pay withheld for federal taxes).

Some of us were really on top of this (although in hindsight IRS has waived the penalty).