Well then…that would be interesting if the senate goes first.
What will the folks who were promised things when the voted yes the first time…do? Since…those promises have not been included in anything since they were made?
I just can’t wait for this to pass, my county will be in the top 10 of homes predicated to decline in value. Thank you Congress. http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/12/heres_what_would_happen_to_nj_home_prices_under_tr.html
Questions that I have …
- Can anyone tell me if they put in any fix for the AMT?
- Which brackets did they keep, house or senate? Our bracket went up with house bill.
Not sure, but I did hear that the top tax bracket was reduced 9%. So you just need to earn more & you’ll save, right?
@kelsmom :))
I read that the AMT still applies, but only for individuals over 500K, joint returns over a million. Hopefully that’s accurate.
does anyone know what happened with the lifetime learning credit. My daughter is in her last semester of grad school next semester and won’t have a tuition waiver as she has to go student teach so can’t TA. Trying to figure out if she needs to pay her tuition by December 31st to get the LLC on this years return or if it will still be available on next years.
I was also wondering about the gain on selling your house. My son is thinking of selling his next year. He is fine under the live there 2 out of the last 5 years rule but has not lived there quite 5 years. Told him he may want to hold off a few months depending on what is in the final bill. He has made a bit on it and he will not want to pay taxes if he can avoid it.
So, all of this was done without the “regular order” of the Senate, which would require 60 votes. To be able to do that, they had to keep it under an increase of $1.5 trillion because of the budget they had passed earlier (also without “regular order”).
In the future, can pieces of this legislation be changed with only 51 votes, under reconciliation, if it saves the feds money? That’s what was proposed with the healthcare legislation, although it didn’t pass. It seems to me it would be pretty easy to save the feds money by just raising the corporate rates a bit and reinstituting the estate tax and all. I don’t know the rules though.
How does this affect contractors? My son just got a contracting job…they asked him if he was going to be an independent contractor or 1099 contractor. We know zilch about this. I guess this means he had to pay both sides of FICA too?
Thanks @busdriver11 , if that’s the case it will help us as we certainly aren’t in the that bracket. I’ve been seething about paying AMT for the last few years as we were not the intended targets :-L
You were the intended targets, since the 1980’s “Reagan” tax cuts. That’s when the AMT was changed to hit a lot of “affluent” families, not just a few dozen rich guys. Congress lowered the rates and eliminated deductions, and revised the AMT to make sure everyone paid something close to the target rates. It’s been a pain, but the old “I’m being hit with a tax meant for a few millionaires” is a few decades out of date.
@busdriver11 - yes, he will have to pay both sides of FICA. It will be on his 1040 (assuming he is not set up as an entity of some sort). He may want to try and pay quarterly estimates - the Self employment taxes can be a but of a shock at tax time. He will get to deduct half the FICA (the “employer” half) as an above the line deduction. He may find he has other deductions available to him as well. The FICA will be on the net business income at the rate of 15.3%
@MomofJandL well I will say we are no where near affluent. We have decent w-2 income but I dare say we have any wealth. Heck we didn’t even start making what I would call mid to upper middle class income until we were in our forties.
Even more urgency now with the tax bill because McCain is in the hospital. Also, for those folks interested in such things, lots of buzz this morning about Paul Ryan contemplating stepping down after the 2018 midterm elections.
Now they’re looking at making the tax cuts for individuals disappear earlier, so they can give more tax cuts to the rich:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gop-consider-plan-to-make-individual-tax-cuts-expire-sooner-shrinking-plans-benefits-for-working-class/2017/12/14/9d83b1ac-e0f2-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html?utm_term=.131aeb5af8b0
@rosered55 I predict quite a few people are going to announce that they’re “not seeking reelection” once this historically unpopular bill passes.
Final tax plan keeps grad student waivers and medical deductions.
We don’t have the final plan yet, but the medical deductions are kept for two years only, according to the leaks we have.
i agree. they are all voting for this as they walk out the door to retirement or a lost election. They all know what garbage this bill actually is and the people see it also. There will be hell to pay.
Want to make it simple and even to the voters? Cut all tax rates by 15 percentage points - not just the corporate rate! Simple and easy to implement. The rich would get more by virtue of mathematics but the middle class would not feel so bad. Right now, the optics are that business gets 15% rate reduction and middle class is not even sure if they get any rate reduction. Details are hidden from the public until Friday.