What? People will game the system!!! But that never happened before!!!
Married Filing Separate is explicitly called out as getting only a $5,000 deduction, which is a pretty strong implication that the deduction will be $10,000 for Married Filing Joint.
It does seem unfair that an individual gets the same deduction as a married couple… so much for no marriage penalty for under $600K in income.
The House version doubled the gift tax exemption but did nothing about the gift tax annual exclusion.
The section of the final billing addressing estate and gift tax does not mention the annual exclusion, so unless it changes as a side effect of something else, I think it remains at $14,000.
See page 103: SEC. 11061. INCREASE IN ESTATE AND GIFT TAX EXEMPTION.
While some may not like his conclusions, JWRosenberg has a twitter feed that does a good job in explaining why the pass through provision is effectively targeted at Real Estate. And in what seems like another error, the marginal rate for personal service income between $350K and $450K of income is kind of brutal. I think there is enough incentive there that all of these business that earn more than 350K will become regular corporations.
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I don’t know anything about real estate or owning a small business.
THIS! And while the regular folks are busy calling each other names, eating their own young, demonizing their neighbors, and throwing the thanksgiving stuffing at each other, the instigators of this conflict carry on with their lives. If those in power - BOTH SIDES - can keep the fight in the pit going as it is now, they benefit. The fight increases the donations from both sides. It benefits those whose livelihoods depend on the number of clicks a highly charged and slanted story garners. It benefits the campaigns, it benefits the spinners of ‘news’, it benefits the entire political-industrial complex. IT feeds on identity politics, dividing us into smaller and smaller sub interest groups.
The machine created by both sides of this coin grows and grows as long as we continue to demonize each other. The machine grows when it manages to create an environment where honest discourse and exchange of ideas becomes impossible. It grows when you live in an area and hold a minority opinion and thus are afraid to even place a bumper sticker or sign on your property. It grows when the ‘others’ voice is shouted over and drowned out. It grows when it manages to limit what words we can use and what can be safely said to whom.
If there are idiots in this game, it’s those who refuse to stop the mud wrestling and look up long enough to see how successfully the manipulation machine is turning its’ gears.
Interesting article I read this morning, about how the IRS probably doesn’t have the infrastructure to implement all of these changes, which will lead to more folks cheating on their taxes because there is just not enough personnel. Ultimately this will lower the tax receipts and increase the deficit.
How is the senate voting on this before it has been scored to see if it is under the limit to allow a majority vote instead of the 60 votes?
^Well it’s supposed to create jobs. Oh, wait - is there a hiring freeze at the IRS?
How about “fiscally irresponsible”?
If a person or household spent all of his/her money and maxed out his/her credit cards during good economic times, what happens during an economic downturn when s/he loses his/her job (or has less income in the case of small business owners or contractors) and has no money and no additional borrowing capacity to stay afloat until s/he can restore his/her income stream?
That is equivalent to greatly increasing the budget deficit during good economic times, leaving no budgetary capacity to handle an economic downturn when tax revenue declines while costs of government services increase.
Really, shouldn’t the government be running a surplus (and paying down existing debt) during good economic times, so that it has plenty of capacity for temporary deficit spending during economic downturns? Just like a household who saves up money during good economic times to have financial contingency plans if a job or income loss occurs?
Supposedly, the vote is taking place in the house this afternoon.
@partyof5 The conference bill changed have already been scored. Those were released. Now the House votes.
I have read the whole thing but I am still In shock. This all went way too fast for rational discussion of unintended consequences.
IMO, corporations do not offshore due to US tax rates. It is labor costs that are number one driver. You need to address both.
PS: If married folks feel cheated out of the “double” SALT deduction, you are lucky you are not a single mom. Head of Household gets treated like single now after $75k. So a guy who is married with 2 kids and wife doesn’t work pays waaaay less than me;)
Would you accept “stupid or lying”? Congresspeople are saying this bill will not raise the deficit. They are stupid, because they think the bill will not raise the deficit despite the fact that every single analyst says it will and it’s scored as raising the deficit by $1.5 trillion. Or they are lying: they know it will raise the deficit, but they nevertheless say it won’t.
But then, if you believe lying to your constituents is evil, “stupid or lying” implies “stupid or evil.”
@hrsmom that stinks! I do taxes for a friend that files HOH, and she is right around that number. She probably needs to increase her 401k contributions.
Can someone point me to the JCT score of the conference bill?
I have the document, not a link. It was dated 12/18 doc JCX-67-17 for google purposes
Several posters here have compared this tax bill to a train wreck.
Well we had a real, tragic train wreck yesterday.
Instead of giving tax breaks to the top 1%, maybe we could invest in infrastructure.
Thanks, HRSMom. It’s a pdf, but it’s linked from here: https://www.jct.gov/
From what I have read, the train accident happened on a new route. Millions of dollars had been invested in that route.
Another example of a post from someone who if I didn’t know better, I would think was one of the kids posting here.
Well this will be fun. Can’t wait to start fighting for my parents SSD and medicare. You know, cuz the deficit!!!
Heaven forbid someone else gets the same safety net Ryan and co got.
The rep’s office confirmed what had been posted here. One SALT per couple.
Our property tax is $6200 +or - , and we have state income taxes.