General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm Old, on Social Security, and Just Finished Doing My Taxes [View all]still_one
(92,187 posts)home equity line of credit, and it is none of my business, and my comment sure wasn't meant to be taken personally against you, and I apologize if it came across that way.
Actually, I agree with your analysis, but I was referring to a specific subset of people that would most likely be adversely affected by this
1. If someone itemized deductions in 2017, lives in a high SIT/property tax state, they are limited to a 10K deduction in 2018.
2. If someone has an equity loan that wasn't used for home improvement, they cannot deduct the interest anymore.
3. Add the elimination of the personal exemption loss to those in that category, and the odds are they will be paying more taxes
Technically, and I don't know how many people realize this, if people refinanced their primary mortgage years ago, and took extra money out for education, or other use, the interest on that extra money taken out is no longer deductible either, and they need to separate that out from their primary mortgage interest.
Those who are not in that category, or who have a very profitable business, are not going to be impacted.
The biggest benefit of the new tax law will be corporations and profitable businesses, where they can take 20% off the profits.
The best way to determine how much the tax law benefits one person is to compare the tax liability in 2017 and compare it to 2018.
As you implied, getting back a refund or owing is not a measure if one is benefitting or not from the new tax law. It is comparing the tax liability from the previous year to the same year, and calculating the tax both the old way and the new way.
As you stated, what one withholds is not a good criteria to use whether one is paying more taxes or not