
New Tax Plan Calculator - programminggeek
http://taxplancalculator.com/
======
ideonexus
I am very confused by "Current Tax System You'd save $0" part. This makes no
sense and reeks of snakeoil.

Then I looked up who created this calculator, and it's Maximm Lott, a writer
for Fox News who's twitter retweets Republican talking points and is bending
over backwards to sell this plan:

[https://twitter.com/maximlott?lang=en](https://twitter.com/maximlott?lang=en)

This propaganda has no business on HN. If you want a tax plan calculator, use
the NYT's.

~~~
lumberjack
The NYT did seem to put more effort into it:

[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/upshot/tax-
ca...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/upshot/tax-
calculator.html)

At least it looks nicer.

~~~
byproxy
I quite like the no-frills approach of the originally posted calculator. It's
kind of refreshing.

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slg
This says I will save a few thousand dollars. I am a single young person with
no dependents and no debt and I make a six figure income that likely puts me
in the top 10% of earners in this county. If anyone deserves a tax cut, it
isn't me.

~~~
coolso
Cool so will you be writing a check for the difference to the IRS as a
“donation”? You can actually do that you know.

~~~
burkaman
I don't think you can donate to the IRS. You can do similar things, but none
are quite the same as paying taxes.

[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20...](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/04/uncle_sam_wants_you_or_at_least_your_spare_change.html)

Also, the problem is that the government now has to plan its budget based on
the new tax plan. Even if I donate a few thousand extra, that won't stop a lot
of important programs from getting cut, and it won't stop general inequality
from increasing.

~~~
ncallaway
You're correct that you don't donate to the IRS, specifically. You can write a
check to the "United States Treasury", however.

They will gladly cash your check.

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quantdev
Surprised to see such a big tax decrease (~14%) even though my wife and I live
in Manhattan and our state and local taxes are about ~10% effective.

The loss of the state and local deductions is more than made up for by the
drop in the marginal rates, apparently.

Now, if we had other deductions (e.g., student loan, mortgage interest and
tax, medical, etc.), I suspect we'd lose out here.

I'm sure this is an unpopular opinion on HN, so let me say I don't believe we
deserve such a large tax cut, but I'm glad to see this plan is not
incentivizing debt or artificially inflating home prices as much as the
current one.

~~~
rottyguy
this probably removes the AMT if you're making < 500k individual or 1M
married, which, for us, was huge last year.

~~~
maximlott
FYI that is a bit of an oversimplification. See the AMT page on
TaxPlanCalculator.com/static/AMT.html to see if it really eliminates your AMT
in that range.

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rsync
This does not take into account the changes to pass-through entities which I
still don't fully understand ...

When I say I don't fully understand them, what I mean is, it _looks like_ they
have changed pass-through entities into (effectively) _negative pass through
entities_ for up to 20% of before tax earnings ? And I think this is for
"draw" or "dividend" income that you extract from the entity ?

So it's like santa claus came and gave me an enormous gift that I never even
dreamed of asking for ?

There must be something I am missing here ...

~~~
ncallaway
No, there's not.

It's something I was discussing with an accountant when these tax proposals
were first being discussed. The accountant _would not accept_ what I was
describing as their proposed pass-through treatment of income because it would
be _ludicrous_.

Ultimately, though, that's what they did. I get a _huge_ tax break that I
don't want and don't need, because we happened to structure our business as a
partnership instead of an LLC.

~~~
coolso
I’ll take it off your hands! I just sent my name and address to you via PM,
but let me know if you’d prefer to send through PayPal instead of a check.

~~~
ncallaway
No thanks!

I'm going to put it into a savings account or low risk investment, and write a
check to the US Treasury at a time when I have more faith in the federal
government.

~~~
coolso
So... you do want the huge tax break then?

Hopefully you'll consider donating at least some (perhaps even all) of that
tax break money to a homeless shelter or a food bank, maybe an animal shelter
as well, especially this time of the year. That would definitely make that
money go much further than it would if you paid it in taxes or sent it to the
Treasury, be it this year or 10 years from now.

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mbrumlow
Fairly sure some of these calculations are wrong or I need to get a new tax
person. There is no way I will pay as little on the current bill as they
think. I think it is making the current plan look way better than what I would
actually pay and have been paying. This makes me distrust the what I would pay
part.

Edit. In fact both of the numbers for both plans are way less than any tax
bill I have seen in the last few years. I would honestly take either of those
over that I actually pay.

~~~
ryannevius
In my case, the federal tax bill amount shown is ~1/3 of my actual.

~~~
quantdev
Are both of you incorrectly taking into account payroll taxes or AMT or state
and local? It seems accurate to me.

~~~
mbrumlow
I am only looking at my federal tax bill. That being said the site seems to be
giving me different numbers now that I am on a computer at home. I checked my
phone (still had the tab open) and it was showing near half what the site is
showing now. But now the site shows the new tax bill will save me money, when
before it said I would pay more.

The numbers I am getting on my computer are closer to the real numbers for the
current plan.

As far as somebody saying "current tax bill saved zero" being weird. Yea it is
weird but not really an issue. Keeping the same plan won't save you anything,
I would be more upset if it tried to suggest it did save you something.

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teilo
The big unknown with this tax bill, is how the states will react. My adjusted
gross income goes up substantially because of the elimination of the personal
exemption, but my child tax credits offset this - but only at the federal
level.

However, at the state level (in Minnesota), I get no child tax credits. This
means I suddenly have a 10% increase in my AGI (with no corresponding increase
in gross income to show for it) that will suddenly be taxable at the state
level, because state taxes are keyed off of federal AGI.

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notacoward
According to this I'm saving quite a bit. _This year._ Next year, not so much.
Year after that, even less. It's like if I offered you a job at a really nice
starting salary, but decreasing over the next few years to even less than you
make already. Apparently a lot of people are stupid enough to accept that
deal, and the folks in DC are dishonest enough to offer it. That's even before
we consider how things will look in ten more years, as the deficit interest
piles up and everyone's earning power is less than it would have been with a
healthier economy.

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product50
This is totally wrong. It doesn't take AMT into consideration at higher salary
levels in the current tax system.

~~~
maximlott
If you are in high-income, it links to a page that tells you how to figure out
AMT yourself.

