The average family. Median income, median kids, median dogs, etc. $60,000 - $80,000 household income, 2 kids, a dog, etc.
2018 Taxes
- Thread starter Cyclone06
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The average family. Median income, median kids, median dogs, etc. $60,000 - $80,000 household income, 2 kids, a dog, etc.
The 10K SALT cap and Cyclone club changes made us end up taking the 24K standard deduction which is quite a bit less than what we usually take. The lower rate made the end result just about even so it could have been worse though. Due to decreased withholding we did end up owing a little over $600 for Federal (still getting a state refund) but at least I was able to pay electronically and didn't have to try and find a checkbook.
Got our done on Saturday. Got a bigger refund than last year and also got a small refund from Iowa which we have never gotten before. I am amazed how accountants look at things differently as we switched accountants this year and found things that could have been deducted in the past that weren't.
Absolutely ridiculous. I'm a few days behind you so it's nice to know mine should be arriving soon. But this is insane and such a poor reflection on our state.
Along those lines, the Iowa Board of Regents just said they wouldn't be discussing 2019-20 tuition in April and instead hope to finalize it in early June. It's just such shoddy management.
Just goes to show how complicated the tax code is. Even professionals who do it for a living and swim in it all the time may not know every last detail.
Our biz decided to pay for the partners personal returns a couple years ago, and the new (bigger, more expensive) accountants went back over our personal returns for 3 years. They found a couple of things related to medical insurance or something. My partner ended up getting $8k back from prior year returns!
Also, I filed fed on April 3, no refund yet, but the site says it will be sent on the 17th. 2 weeks!
Iowa is still "in process" and most people are seeing30-45 days.
They know the 95% they deal with. It isn't worth wasting your time to learn the stuff you deal with once every 12 years.
This first year was essentially a wash for the middle class. It was good, if not great, for the wealthy and for corporations. It was also very good for anyone who won't ever have to think about dealing with the national debt.
They don't have 19-20 tuition set yet? I did not know that. My first starts this year. Wonderful to find out that I don't really know the cost yet.
My kids aren't college age yet so I don't follow as closely as I would if they were, but I believe there was a proposed five-year tuition road map kind of thing, to add some predictability to it. Not sure if that came to pass or not.
Regardless, you should be able to ballpark it. I think they have proposed tuition figures out, they just aren't final. Still, it's crazy. In this economy there's zero reason for a state not to have its budget set early so the Regents can set tuition. Just like there's zero reason tax refunds should take more than a couple weeks.
Which is horrible for the universities trying to budget for the fiscal year that starts in July. Not much time to budget and plan for a whole year in a few weeks.
And horrible for students and their families to figure out what they may need in loans, grants or such. FAFSA goes off what they estimate the cost to attend ISU is and ISU used last years tuition numbers so they may be understating instate students by 500 bucks. Doesn't sound like much but it could make a difference for some kids.
Yes and no. They're obviously planning months/years in advance so whatever changes come down now will probably be around the margins. Besides, it's employee salary costs that are most sensitive to the whims of the legislature. If state funding comes in lower than expected, that will absorb the brunt of it.
Defrauding the IRS and being aggressive with the tax code are 2 different things. If you're audited there may be an adjustment for past tax due, but you shouldn't NOT do something out of fear of an audit unless it is illegal or fraud.
If you have 1 child but the kid self-identifies as gender neutral, can you claim both the woman and the man side and have 2 dependents?
Since there are no "dependent" exemptions anymore (on federal) I'm going to say it doesn't matter.
Can you amend a previous year any time during the calendar year? I realized I overstated some extra income in a previous year and it should lead to a significant change.
Budget is done. Once they get the final # someone will go in and adjust some driver they sandbagged on to get it to where they need to be.
