How much extra did you get in your paycheck?

[RangerOne]

I have to use calculators to figure it out since I think the new tax law took effect in February after annual wage increases. I also have 2 kids moving forward this year so best I can tell, on a per pay check semi-monthly bases, my pay went down by 0.61 cents technically if I were getting the same pay...

Now I assume this doesn't take into account the new Child tax credit, which there is no way in hell I would have gotten this year because switching jobs is dumping more income on me. So realistically come tax time I will get $4k back I wouldn't have gotten. Which is worth $166.67 per pay check.

Nothing to sneeze at this make a fair bit of difference. That amount basically covers most of my property tax or some other significant annual expense. I imagine people without kids are seeing a bigger per pay check break but they wont get that child tax credit.

I am also not sure I 100% trust the tool they use to estimate pay check after deductions. I think it may be always applying the new tax laws with "what if" and that makes things a little fuzzy... Especially given my exemptions changed.

[MDM]

I am also not sure I 100% trust the tool they use to estimate pay check after deductions. I think it may be always applying the new tax laws with "what if" and that makes things a little fuzzy... Especially given my exemptions changed.

If you get ~the same results from a couple of sources, say the "what if?" worksheets of TurboTax, TaxAct, etc. and the case study spreadsheet, then chances are the results are correct (to the extent your input ends up being correct).

[RangerOne]

Hmm, I reviewed the new W4's a little closer because if you didn't bother to update it it just kept your old allowances.

It seems they have kept a certain allowance value which can be used to essentially give you your child tax credit up front in every pay check.

Depending on your income each child could be worth as much as 4 allowances or down to 1 if you are high income. So at least 2 of those allowances are eating about $1k worth of the child tax credit I would get.

So thats kind of an interesting re-purposing of those allowances. It used to be the one allowance was effectively just counting in the exemption. But you could always up the number to account for larger itemization deductions.

[smoghat]

I'm FIRE'd, on Obamacare and in a high property tax state.

Coupled with the nutty trade war, if someone wanted to directly attack my FIRE status, they couldn't have done better than the current "President."

[DreamFIRE]

$180/mo  - $2160/yr.  Woohoo!!!   This matches up pretty closely with what I had calculated.

This is nice additional chunk of money.   The downside is that my state income tax is up about 66% from what it was some years back, higher property taxes, higher home insurance, higher everything else pretty much.  And when I FIRE, higher healthcare coverage costs.

[BlueMR2]

It's right around a 90 cent an hour bump for me, which is VERY significant over the course of a year!

[VoteCthulu]

I'm FIRE'd, on Obamacare and in a high property tax state.

Coupled with the nutty trade war, if someone wanted to directly attack my FIRE status, they couldn't have done better than the current "President."

Really? I would think someone who succeeded in a full repeal of Obamacare would have done better at attacking your FIRE status.

[Jrr85]

I should probably take that extra $50 or whatever it is and invest it for my kids. They are the ones who will be stuck paying for the bill of this tax bill when someone in government finally comes to his/her senses.

You should be taking a lot more than that.  At the very least, you need to hope you have enough that you can give them your entire SS and either pay for helathcare without medicare, or give what it would actually cost to your kids. 

It's baked in the cake that younger people are going to pay a lot more in taxes, or retirees are going to get a lot less than they promised themselves (in theory healthcare could get lots cheaper, in which case it'd just be SS where one or the other or both have to get screwed).  That's one of my goals with saving for retirement, so that either way it goes, I can mitigate the harm to my children (or myself).  Of course I'm still young enough that I could get screwed with higher taxes and lower benefits too.   

[ysette9]

And then there is always my backup plan: move to a country with better social support and long-term planning.

[VoteCthulu]

And then there is always my backup plan: move to a country with better social support and long-term planning.

Any particular countries in mind? Most of those with generous social support are difficult to attain citizenship in.

I've considered living in Svalbard before moving to Norway, but I doubt many people would want to do that.

[ysette9]

Through this very community I am fortunate to learn I can apply for UK citizenship thanks to having been born to a mother with UK citizenship. I realize with Brexit this leaves something to be desired, but that still is a place that doesn’t let its citizens go broke and die on the streets the way we do here.

[VoteCthulu]

Through this very community I am fortunate to learn I can apply for UK citizenship thanks to having been born to a mother with UK citizenship. I realize with Brexit this leaves something to be desired, but that still is a place that doesn’t let its citizens go broke and die on the streets the way we do here.

I'm not sure how much money living in the UK would save you, last time I visited I thought it was incredibly expensive. Granted, that was before the brexit vote and the crash of the pound, but I bet the cost of living is still pretty high there.

[ysette9]

Not for saving money, but for having guaranteed access to healthcare. Then again, that does save money in the long run. I am in a HCOL area do the prices there aren’t as shocking as it may be for some.

There is also the side benefit of not worrying about my kids being shot at school.

[VoteCthulu]

Sounds like a good idea, then. Unfortunately it's much more difficult for most of us to find a better country that we can both afford to live in and gain citizenship in.

[ysette9]

I feel for you there. It was quite the surprise when this path opened up for me.

[clarkfan1979]

My employer withholding went down $70/month.