Taxes and you how much of your refund where you screwed out of?

I get your first point. On the investing in rental properties, that doesn't help you with your actual wages. You could also invest in the bonds, tax-free bonds, high dividend stocks or stocks that you hope appreciate and hold for at least a year. Already having wealth and sheltering it is different than one's wages obviously.

 

It will take some time to adjust behavior as many people have come to expect/rely on that refund.

 

His very first sentence was "I admit I am biased in part b/c it has hurt my household's personal finances, substantially -- but I have been consistent in my criticism of this tax bill."

Second, you are arguing against human behavior. In this case, a large percentage of people that count on a large refund every year. In fact, a large number that purposely prepare their W2 with the objective of getting a larger refund at the end of the year. And I would tend to believe a good percentage of those that do are those that tend to live closer to "paycheck to paycheck." So when people that hope for or even rely on getting that refund don't...arguing how other people (usually wealthier) approach their taxes isn't going to be a very compelling argument.

 

So your argument is the tax plan is terrible because it adjusted peoples with holdings and they were too stupid to figure it out when it happened? Never mind your sweeping generalization of 'a good number'. (whatever a good number is). Maybe 'a good number' of people live paycheck to paycheck because they have no idea of how much of their money is coming in and where its going out. Its called budgeting. Something that is largely glossed over in our education system.

Sweeping generalizations are great! We should have more of these conversations.

 

So, you are denying that a large number of people live paycheck by paycheck? Are you denying a large number of people set the number of allowances in order to increase the taxes taken out of paychecks in order to get a larger refund? And that many of these people complaining now about the smaller than expected tax refund?

I am not sure what your argument is... nor do I think simply claiming that these people have only themselves to blame. I mean I guess its a way to defend trump's tax plan, which you seem programmed to do. So knock yourself out complaining about generalizations...

Smaller tax refunds mean some won't catch up on bills

https://www.freep.com/story/money/p...19/02/17/tax-refund-2019-michigan/2849895002/

 

There are some parts of Trumps plan that I like, such as capping SALT and combining the personal exemption and standard deduction. I disagree with sweeping tax breaks for massive corporations like Amazon and Apple but I support them for small businesses. See, how hard was it to point out the pro's and to point out the cons instead of being a mindless drone for whichever party you support.

Since you struggling with reading comprehension, I will spell it out for you; I am mocking your use of 'a large number'. Is 3.28 million people a large number? I would say so. Is 1% (of the USA) a large number? Not really.

What I will say is that anyone who uses the IRS as a piggy bank are not Americas best and brightest. We should probably educate these people and teach them some basic economics instead of using them as a pawn in a stupid political argument...something both parties love doing.

 

So again, your response is "almost 4 million people are not the best and the brightest" and so they must be wrong to be upset that they are being hurt by a tax cut that had the greatest benefit to "massive corporations"?

And speaking of the tax cut... wouldn't it have been better for trump to have focused the tax cuts to middle class and small businesses instead of the largest corporations? Seems that would have been a better approach that would have broader support. Including my own.

 

I think we already have a couple of threads on this, no?

My taxes would have gone up but for the child tax credit. It went down instead. I have no problem with this credit. It takes a little burden off of having children and incentivizes reproduction. As many people as we have in the world, we can still support growth within the USA. If we don't fill it with babies, we'll fill it with immigrants. Either is fine with me honestly, but I don't see a public policy problem with supporting population growth.

 

ib4 @Senator

 

This is off topic, but with the talk of basic universal income, 'dem robots taking our jerbs', and environmental impact, shouldn't we discourage population growth?

 

Absolutely, but the problems are Latin America, parts of India and Africa.. . and this causes anxiety amongst citizens feeling they need to keep up. it has to be a global, UN initiative with women in these countries informed and given the right.

 

I don't believe Amazon is doing anything wrong or taking advantage of crazy loopholes, but their tax situation is mostly a secret to me.

I don't think the government should be paying us to have kids. As my kids age I'll watch my taxes sky rocket. I'd rather have a system that would tax me more now and less down the road.

 

No idea, taxes are just another form to fill, like a pre-Hopwood state school application.