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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The government is purposefully misleading people. I wonder how much we are paying them to purposefully mislead us.

When you figure out your taxes, you’ll know how much you’re paying them this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Uh no. We would never do this because then wealthy Americans couldn't cheat on their taxes through inflated deductions, inflated depreciations, and phony expenses. The IRS has little bandwidth to really police this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Uh no. We would never do this because then wealthy Americans couldn't cheat on their taxes through inflated deductions, inflated depreciations, and phony expenses. The IRS has little bandwidth to really police this stuff.

The reason taxes aren’t done by the government has nothing to do with fear of big brother and everything to do with the lobbying power of tax preparers.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/turbotax-h-r-block-spend-millions-lobbying-us-keep-doing-n736386

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Congress changed the tax law in a way that had multiple overlapping effects and the IRS changed the withholding tables. Ordinary taxpayers could not accurately anticipate how these changes would affect their final tax bill, on net. The IRS absolutely had an affirmative responsibility to not change the standard withholding amounts in a way that would leave a greater number of taxpayers owing money or flip large numbers of people from getting refunds to owing taxes. That is irresponsible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Congress changed the tax law in a way that had multiple overlapping effects and the IRS changed the withholding tables. Ordinary taxpayers could not accurately anticipate how these changes would affect their final tax bill, on net. The IRS absolutely had an affirmative responsibility to not change the standard withholding amounts in a way that would leave a greater number of taxpayers owing money or flip large numbers of people from getting refunds to owing taxes. That is irresponsible.

Stop trying. They will never admit to toying with the withholdings for political purposes. The entire raison d'etre of their nihilistic ideology is to lie and undercut fellow citizens to enrich themselves.

Fooling a significant number of Americans into thinking they got a tax cut - when in reality they got a loan from the IRS - is completely "fair game" to their warped minds.

The ends always justify the means. So of course they will drone on about "personal responsibility" and "you should have re-run your taxes multiple times this year!" instead of admitting they support a very sh#tty set of policy goals that harms their fellow Americans. This is what happens when you have a bunch of clinical narcissists in charge of policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Congress changed the tax law in a way that had multiple overlapping effects and the IRS changed the withholding tables. Ordinary taxpayers could not accurately anticipate how these changes would affect their final tax bill, on net. The IRS absolutely had an affirmative responsibility to not change the standard withholding amounts in a way that would leave a greater number of taxpayers owing money or flip large numbers of people from getting refunds to owing taxes. That is irresponsible.

Stop trying. They will never admit to toying with the withholdings for political purposes. The entire raison d'etre of their nihilistic ideology is to lie and undercut fellow citizens to enrich themselves.

Fooling a significant number of Americans into thinking they got a tax cut - when in reality they got a loan from the IRS - is completely "fair game" to their warped minds.

The ends always justify the means. So of course they will drone on about "personal responsibility" and "you should have re-run your taxes multiple times this year!" instead of admitting they support a very sh#tty set of policy goals that harms their fellow Americans. This is what happens when you have a bunch of clinical narcissists in charge of policy.

The W-4 withholding estimator is accurate if you put the right inputs in. IRS did not muck with it. What they potentially mucked with is the amount withheld at each tier of deductions that you put in the W-4. If you filled out the W-4 without the help of the calculator you were likely wrong. Or even more if you didn't bother to update your W-4 last February you are likely way way wrong because dependent exemptions don't even exist any more.

Again, pleading ignorance about something that you should stay on top is not an excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Congress changed the tax law in a way that had multiple overlapping effects and the IRS changed the withholding tables. Ordinary taxpayers could not accurately anticipate how these changes would affect their final tax bill, on net. The IRS absolutely had an affirmative responsibility to not change the standard withholding amounts in a way that would leave a greater number of taxpayers owing money or flip large numbers of people from getting refunds to owing taxes. That is irresponsible.

Stop trying. They will never admit to toying with the withholdings for political purposes. The entire raison d'etre of their nihilistic ideology is to lie and undercut fellow citizens to enrich themselves.

Fooling a significant number of Americans into thinking they got a tax cut - when in reality they got a loan from the IRS - is completely "fair game" to their warped minds.

The ends always justify the means. So of course they will drone on about "personal responsibility" and "you should have re-run your taxes multiple times this year!" instead of admitting they support a very sh#tty set of policy goals that harms their fellow Americans. This is what happens when you have a bunch of clinical narcissists in charge of policy.

The W-4 withholding estimator is accurate if you put the right inputs in. IRS did not muck with it. What they potentially mucked with is the amount withheld at each tier of deductions that you put in the W-4. If you filled out the W-4 without the help of the calculator you were likely wrong. Or even more if you didn't bother to update your W-4 last February you are likely way way wrong because dependent exemptions don't even exist any more.

Again, pleading ignorance about something that you should stay on top is not an excuse.

Thank you for making my point for me.

[Anonymous]

The minute I saw my deductions go down, I had more withheld. We have complex taxes and pay quarterly taxes because we own a company. If we hadn't we may not have hit the safe harbor limit and that would be a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

The calculator is an estimate. It gets more precise as you get closer to year end because more of your income is then earned vs. projected.

The IRS is not responsible for withholding your taxes. YOU ARE. Hence you need to stay on top of this. Its really not that hard. Do the calculator in the first quarter and then again in the fall and you will be generally OK.

I worked in the UK. There most people don't file a tax return. The government does their taxes for them. We would never allow such a system in the US given big brother concerns. The flip side is that you have to stay on top of things.

Uh no. We would never do this because then wealthy Americans couldn't cheat on their taxes through inflated deductions, inflated depreciations, and phony expenses. The IRS has little bandwidth to really police this stuff.

The reason taxes aren’t done by the government has nothing to do with fear of big brother and everything to do with the lobbying power of tax preparers.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/turbotax-h-r-block-spend-millions-lobbying-us-keep-doing-n736386

That and Grover Norquist’s insistence that it is would be a scam
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/grover-norquist/grover-norquist-taxes_b_3005698.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IRS shows initial drop in tax refunds of 8% on average

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-first-wave-of-tax-refunds-are-down-8-on-average-181001645.html

There's news articles daily about very unhappy taxpayers. Wait til the April filers realize that they owe! The ones who do February are relatively more organized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember doing a calculator early in 2018 and it told me that I'd have to pay $1K. That's not a huge figure, so I left things alone. Just found out I'm getting the same refund as last year, about $4K. So the calculators aren't accurate.

It's not unreasonable for citizens to expect the IRS to withhold their taxes correctly. Especially when screwing with the tables was an UNABASHEDLY political move.

Of course they he overly simple tax calculators are not accurate. They do t factor in even 5-10 of the main factors that determine your taxes (amt, deductions, credits, 401k/SEP IRA, etc)

[Anonymous]

I filed my taxes 3 weeks ago and I have yet to be told when to expect my DC refund. Already got fed back. Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The government is purposefully misleading people. I wonder how much we are paying them to purposefully mislead us.

When you figure out your taxes, you’ll know how much you’re paying them this year.

That is not what I meant but I can see how the wording was confusing.

[Anonymous]

Now I'm scared to do ours and find out how much we owe!

[Anonymous]

i just did ours. We owe 9K. I have no idea how we owe so much. We make around 330K gross, all but about 6k from wages, both of us take out 24,500 for 401K; we have one kid and some investments that showed long term cap gains this year. We sold a little to pay for the last of our renovations (most was paid for by HELOC) We each claim 0 on our w-4s.

We always owed, but never this much. The GOP screwed us again.