^ when do you get billed for your 2nd property tax? I don’t even get that bill until 1st week of January.
“I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing,” Grassley said, “as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”
I can’t decide which is dopier, the idea that if only people didn’t spend money on movies, booze and women they’d have $11 million estates, or the idea that people who do have $11 million estates didn’t spend money on those things.
I’m also interested to learn that women, in Chuck Grassley’s mind, are expenditures, not people who act autonomously. Doesn’t surprise me.
Anyone finding it a pain must be still doing their taxes by hand. Ridiculous. You plug a few numbers into tax software, and it does it for you. This “simplification” argument is a fig leaf for a huge tax increase on the middle class.
@Iglooo : The “poor” benefit from deductions to the extent that they induce people like me to give more than I might otherwise.
@emilybee : I guess states may differ. I get a FY bill due in November and February, so I can advance the second payment at will. I’m actually trying to see if I can pay only a part of the second one in order to come as close as possible to the potential $10K cap for 2018, but I have not yet figured out if that is to my benefit.
This article was on the Wall Street Journal twitter feed. I did not hit a pay wall so I hope you don’t too.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/passage-of-senate-tax-bill-puts-r-d-tax-credit-in-doubt-1512328243?mod=e2tw
WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans, in their push last week to pass a sweeping tax bill, undermined a research-and-development tax credit many companies use to encourage innovation, and business interests are in revolt…
Even doing it by hand, schedule A is a snap for anyone who passed 3rd grade arithmetic.
Yes, the poor get back $10 for $100 contribution they make while the wealthy get back $39.60 for the same contribution. Big help!
@AboutTheSame, thx. We are billed in September and January.
Maybe I’ll stop in at Town Hall and ask of I can pay my bill now. I’m sure the answer will be no but it can’t hurt to ask.
Iglooo, you may have misunderstood what AboutTheSame is saying. They’re saying that because they can deduct their charitable donations, they contribute more to the causes that benefit poor people than they would if those deductions were not tax deductible.
Charities are saying the same thing. They’re saying they expect smaller donations under this tax bill.
“Yes, the poor get back $10 for $100 contribution they make while the wealthy get back $39.60 for the same contribution. Big help!”
All the money that people gave to charities that help the poor (like food banks, for example) will decrease.
Sure, if all that you have are the standard stuff of a homeowner, SALT, mortgage, etc.
But (unfortunately), I have plenty of medical expenses which need to be totaled up each year. Doable on a spreadsheet, but it does take several hours of combing thru EOB’s, receipts from Walgreens, CVS, etc. I would not rate it a snap. Nor could a 3rd grader complete it. (rather insulting hyperbole, no?)
Hmmm, let me see, what portion of that receipt from Walgreen’s should I count that is not covered by pretax expenses elsewhere? Or, how about that big flood that rolled thru town last year. Where are all my damage receipts? Yo, kiddo, can you tell me how much that foundation costs to repair?
OTOH, Schedule D is a snap since I just upload an electronic report from my brokerage house.
I track medical expenses all year in a spreadsheet as they are incurred or paid, it isn’t that big a deal.
@“Snowball City” - thank you for posting that link. Keeping corporate AMT is so screwy. This is giving a tax break to cos that have $0 R&D.
"But the corporate rate is now proposed to be 20%, so the overhaul could drive many companies into the AMT—and force them to lose some of their breaks in the process.
The biggest consequence could be the research credit, often used by manufacturers, technology firms and pharmaceutical companies. Under the credit, companies get money back from the government for what they spend on innovation, often for wages of scientists and engineers. Corporations will claim $10.3 billion in research credits in 2018, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
“Research and development is the lifeblood of manufacturing,” said Chris Netram, vice president for tax and domestic economic policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. “The NAM supports pro-growth tax reform, and is working with key policy makers to ensure the final bill does not inadvertently harm manufacturing.”
Murray Energy Corp., an Ohio-based firm and the largest privately held U.S. coal-mining company, complained that the AMT decision and the Senate’s tougher limits on interest deductions made a “mockery out of so-called tax reform.” Robert Murray, the company’s chief executive officer, said the Senate tax plan would raise his tax bill by $60 million."
The article was not beyond a paywall for me.
@BunsenBurner I think the R&D problem will self correct when the stream of PhDs dry up due to the tuition waiver taxes! Then we will hear that we need to import PhDs because our universities don’t graduate enough and US students are too lazy to get a PhD.
Would you be in support of simplification if it was revenue neutral? In other words, for every line on the tax return that got eliminated (under simplification), the lower --not upper – tax brackets would be decreased by the exact amount to keep the tax intake the same? (And/or, the standard deduction is increased.)
Would you be in support of simplification if it was revenue neutral? In other words, for every line on the tax return that got eliminated (under simplification), the lower --not upper – tax brackets would be decreased by the exact amount to keep the tax intake the same? (And/or, the standard deduction is increased.)
No its not, but not tracking them at all just HAS to be simpler, no?
So I am not money-savvy. I cut and pasted y’all’s posts about paying a mortgage payment early.
Here they are:
<<Suggesting that anyone who itemizes now and might not be itemizing in 2018 due to higher standard deduction consider making January mortgage pymt in December. I am doing so. Accelerate deductions.
Only works if it goes to interest, not principal . I may suggest this to my Son and to my D and SIL, depending on how much interest will have accrued by 12/31
a full mortgage pymt that includes interest. I am going to make my January mortgage pymt on 12/27 so that the interest portion is included for 2017 when I still itemize.
suggest to my kids they check with their banks for how much interest would have accrued by Dec 31 if they make an early payment.>>
So is the consensus to pay only the interest? I should call the bank and ask to make an interest-only payment?
Yes, we itemize; we have all kinds of funky income as well, beyond 1099s and W-2s. But a lot of the itemizing is tied up in sole proprietorship deductions, which might vanish, who knows, making it impossible to itemize anymore. So I should play it safe and pay more interest this year, yes?
tx
2 years ago I was tracking deductible expenses closely. I meticulously logged volunteer miles driven (date/time/start mileage/end mileage/destination/purpose/total miles). I logged about 5,000 miles!! I paid my property taxes in January and December, made extra charitable donations, and I stil couldn’t itemize!! (Low property taxes and no mortgage). Now I don’t even bother, but I still make charitable donations even though they don’t help my taxes. I even donate appreciated stock.
“OTOH, Schedule D is a snap since I just upload an electronic report from my brokerage house.”
True for very simple investments for which the broker has all of the data. Not so true for things where you have to fish for cost basis and cost basis adjustments. But even that can be done with a pencil and paper. If one wants to get fancy, Excel helps. 
I have some of that too – just figured I’ll let it ride until I’m gone and then the kids will get the new basis. 