2018 Taxes
- Thread starter Cyclone06
- Start date
I itemized roughly 20k last year and had 21000 of exemptions. This year I get the 24k standard deduction. Ouch.
I just did a tax return last night that had $35,000 of state and local taxes ($7000 property tax, $800 vehicle registrations and $27,200 of Iowa withholding) but it is capped at $10,000. I warned them about this when I picked up their taxes on Sunday but needless to say they are not going to be happy when I call them later today with the results.
I actually did reduce what I paid myself this year knowing that I was cashing in quite a bit of the money I had invested for the kids' college with the first going this year. Also had expenses decrease on my personal side. I always feel the good and bad a year later with the grain farming that I have. Two years ago was great yields, last year was a disaster so I am paying higher taxes while selling a disaster level crop. When it's nice, it's overly nice. When it stinks, you buckle up and start praying.
Yeah Iowa returns are behind compared to federal returns but it's been that way for awhile now. Got our federal return on 2/26 which was maybe a week after filing, the IA return came on 4/1. Someone joked that it's because Iowa is broke right now but I pointed out the federal government has been in massive debt for a long time and it hasn't slowed them down 
Although the federal government can just print more money I guess...
Although the federal government can just print more money I guess...
Wait…wha? Don’t they pay you the big bucks to make those numbers come out better in the end?
With 1 W2, a house and 3 cars there isn't much I can do. It's the prime example of "it is what it is".
My effective tax rate for 2018 went down......THREE basis points - haha!
This is an informative thread.
Happy I made more $$ in 2018 but for all the hoopla over a "tax cut" i "saved" a nice 0.03% lol.
This is an informative thread.
Happy I made more $$ in 2018 but for all the hoopla over a "tax cut" i "saved" a nice 0.03% lol.
Yeah, farmer. Take down one of your mail boxes.
EDIT: That's a jibe to a friend. I don't have anything against farmers.
They got rid of the home office credit. I took advantage of that in the past as I’m 100% work from home.
Having 3 kids helped a lot on my taxes. In the past if two parents worked it seemed phase out of child credit happened quickly based on income. My oldest turns 17 next year so will lose that benefit (of course parents blow money out their butts raising kids outside of the tax game). My taxes wouldn’t have changed much without that going on.
Solar tax credit from the state helped out this year on state return. Ended up paying in to fed.
I imagine that will make taxes less fun next year.
<shrug>
I imagine that will make taxes less fun next year.
<shrug>
My dog wants to self-identify as a child. Can I claim her on my taxes as a child? Asking for a friend.
Jimilad implied
Jimilad implied
I didn't realize they'd gotten rid of it. Thanks for correcting me (fyi....it was a deduction, not a credit). I prepared taxes on the side for a few yrs, but haven't been in the game for several so easy to miss the changes that don't affect me personally.
It was probably best they got rid of it because a lot of taxpayers were using this incorrectly and because of that, it was a audit trigger. For example, you mentioned you work 100% from home. That wasn't a qualifier for getting the deduction. The factor that tripped up most when they were audited, is that the space had to be used 100% exclusively for work. e.g...I remember reading of an instance where a guy got audited. He worked exclusively from home too but they found he had a day bed in the "home office" that as used as an extra bed when they had company. Deduction was disallowed.
They relaxed the income qualification on the child tax credit. We hadn't received the full credit for the last few years but qualified for it in full this year even though our income didn't go down. That was nice.
