It looks like the individual AMT is still in the bill. We’ve been hit the last couple of years. Does anyone know if the incomes are being adjusted?
We have no illusions that this tax bill will actually relieve our tax burden short or long term as students. But at least this is going to make it so we don’t have to mass drop out of our programs.
Keeping in the medical expense write off will be quite helpful to us too. I don’t think we’ll itemize again anytime soon but I’m thinking long term.
Speaking of- what did the standard deduction get changed to in this new bill?
From the tax policy center on SALT,
And what percent of the benefit of estate tax removal goes to taxpayers with incomes over $200,000? All of it.
John McCain is out for treatment, if corker is still a no, I can keep hope alive that Collins will be a no and this thing won’t pass.
Interesting about the $10,000 deduction for real estate taxes. In NYTIMES over the past few weeks, there were zero houses in the entire metro area with less than $10,000 in real estate taxes. Even a very small tudor in Yonkers which would not be on anyone’s list of top school districts had taxes of $11,500 at $450,000 They did show what $650,000 buys you in other parts of the U.S including a stately brick colonial in St. Louis with minimal taxes and a 2 bedroom condo in Tucson unusual features and also low taxes.
I hate the AMT more than anything. Not because of the financial impact but because I dont understand it, and it makes no sense whatsoever. I hate it.
That depends on how you define the metro area. You can find cheap homes in NJ, where your property taxes are less than $10k. Take a look at Newark or Jersey City.
@suzyQ7 me too especially since we aren’t wealthy, didn’t have a ton of deductions, and didn’t live in a high tax state.
I still say folks are going into be in for a big surprise come tax time 2019.
It is a tax system with fewer itemized deductions, a large standard deduction, and an otherwise-almost-flat rate structure (26% and 28%), except for the preferential rates for long term capital gains.
However, it foregoes the apparent simplicity by requiring you to calculate taxes the regular way, then add back some deducted items to get the alternative minimum taxable income (AMTI) on which to calculate AMT on. I.e. a more complicated way of calculating what should be a simpler to calculate tax.
Here are the AMT form 6251 and instructions:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f6251.pdf
https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i6251
Basically, line 1 is your regular income. Lines 2 through 27 are deductions added back to get AMTI in line 28. Lines 29-33 calculate AMT by itself; if it exceeds your regular tax, the additional amount from the AMT is calculated for line 35, to be added to your regular tax on form 1040.
Note that state and local taxes (line 3) are among the deductions that are added back to get AMTI, so those paying AMT have already lost the state and local tax deduction.
"Yellen said at a news conference the likelihood of lower taxes is why Fed officials expect the economy to grow at 2.5 percent in 2018. But growth would then slip back closer to its recent 2 percent average.
She said that any wage growth would likely stem from the low unemployment rate rather than the tax cuts."
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/gop-tax-plan-trims-top-rate-for-wealthy-cuts-corporate-rate/
AMT is easy unless you have a business or investments that trigger AMT. then it is not so intuitive, and you have to remember that some of your investments might end up with dual basis… and you may never recover that AMT paid on them.
Checking for clarity…so now the house votes on this compromise bill…and then it goes back to the Senate for a vote.
All Righty.
@thumper1, yes.
So if John McCain can’t make the vote which I have heard but haven’t seen confirmed, I say that any Republican Senator can’t argue for an amendment that fails. Either get it in the bill or vote against it. No grandstanding.
The “Conference Committee” is a sham. The Democrats on the committee don’t get to see the proposed legislation. At all. This is not normal. It is not the normal way of doing things in the United States Congress.
Hmmm…
There—fixed it for you. 
Looks to me like this is pretty much a done deal. After the AL loss, republicans miraculously reach an agreement so Trump can hold a press conference and parade “average” middle class Americans in from of the camera to tout the tax bill.
No stopping this train.
Glad to see the grad student tuition change was taken out. That was good.
Friday is the day when it is unveiled with a vote the week after. Not really sure anybody in congress really cares what it says. They need a win and will vote for a win. Does not really matter. I just hope all the middle class voters can see thru this and remember come election time.
Well…the house will vote first…right. Then it goes back to the Senate.
I understand it that the senate will go first. The House is pretty much a forgone conclusion of passing.