Anyone else get a surprise? Even having a bit of extra money taken out every pay period, we got a nice little $1660 bang. Quite a difference from last year.

I wonder what changed.

Yeah, we owe $1800. We didn't max out my wife's IRA contribution, so we're going to dump a few thousand into it and bring that number down a little before April.

I got a refund of $2.6k, which surprised me given the $10k cap.

still working on our taxes...expect we'll owe. Haven't gotten a refund in years

Posted by cccp1014 on 2/18/2019 4:29:00 PM (view original):
I got a refund of $2.6k, which surprised me given the $10k cap.

Yeah, our socialist society loves to help everyone support their kids. Talk about a deduction that should go.

All deductions should go.

Even mortgage interest? I enjoy it but next year I'll just do the standard anyway.

All deductions. Taxes aren't intended for social engineering. They are intended to fund the government. We should not be incentivizing people to purchase houses through our tax code. We should be paying our country's obligations through tax revenue.

isn't offering mortgage interest deductions incentivizing people to purchase homes through our tax code?
There are lots of things we should be doing. Unfortunately most of the people we see fit to elect to positions of power are only interested in enriching themselves.

Sorry, that was supposed to say "should not". Corrected now.

I don't know, we (and yes, the government is us) clearly have an interest in encouraging families raising children, buying homes, etc. It's good for the economy.

Offering tax incentives are a good way to do that. No one decides to have kids because they get a tax break but if you're in the position where you're trying to decide if you should have kids now or wait a couple years, a relatively small tax break might be enough to allow you to do it now. Same with a home purchase.

The idea that we would live in a world with no income tax deductions is kind of unrealistic.

Explain why SALT limit didn’t impact you. I ll Wait patiently

Posted by bad_luck on 2/19/2019 4:29:00 PM (view original):
I don't know, we (and yes, the government is us) clearly have an interest in encouraging families raising children, buying homes, etc. It's good for the economy.

Offering tax incentives are a good way to do that. No one decides to have kids because they get a tax break but if you're in the position where you're trying to decide if you should have kids now or wait a couple years, a relatively small tax break might be enough to allow you to do it now. Same with a home purchase.

The idea that we would live in a world with no income tax deductions is kind of unrealistic.

If you are in a financial position where a tax break pushes you over the edge to make the decision, you probably made the wrong decision. Our country has forgotten how to save money. We shouldn't be encouraging people that can't afford to own a home to buy a home. That is bad for the economy. So, no! Buying a home is not always good for the economy.

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/19/2019 4:05:00 PM (view original):
Sorry, that was supposed to say "should not". Corrected now.

ah...that makes much more sense