Throughout the year, I have hoarded cash because I was putting off my decision with what to do with the money. So yesterday, I met with my accountant to (a) estimate my final quarterly tax payment and (b) determine what to do with said cash laying around.
After meeting with my accountant for about two hours, I was absolutely shocked at how big of a tax break we were getting under the new tax reform. We have always had at least some income in the 25% tax bracket even after almost maxing our entire 401(k)'s and taking other deductions. And then the next bracket below that was 15%, which is what almost all of my income was taxed at.
But this year, we are quite comfortably in the 12% tax bracket due to the much larger standard deduction, as well as the new 20% deduction for business owners. Basically, all we did this year was max HSA and my wife contributed about $7k to her 401(k), but with these new tax rates, we are in the 12% bracket.
I went into the meeting thinking that I was going to put as much as possible into a 401(k). I left the meeting thinking that the tax rate was so low that it might actually be *higher* when I take this money out later; or conversely, that we might as well take advantage of these tax rates now, because they will eventually phase out and/or be increased.
Thus, and after talking about it with three CPAs now, I'm taking the money now and using it to pay off some higher interest debts.
Side note, of course -- this has nothing to do with politics. I don't want this to be a political discussion. I hope we can talk about this tax reform and keep it about the math and its effect on decision making without it turning into a Trump swamp. Thanks.
Anybody else having similar ideas?