Skip to main content

Today's Poll: Do you think the new tax plan will mean more money for you?

By Howard B. Owens
Tim Miller

I believe the tax plan would have resulted in my paying more taxes in 2018 had my situation remained constant. I just sold a home where I had a fair sized mortgage and larger home equity loan. As interest on home equity loans will no longer be deductible, that would have hurt me dearly....even though every penny borrowed against the property was put right back in as improvements.

Given that I purchased a home with cash from the equity from the sold home, my tax bill may decrease. I got lucky, though, as my plans had been in the works since early 2016 - it just so happened that my moves were advantageous tax-wise.

Dec 28, 2017, 11:25am Permalink
tom hunt

This so called tax reform bill is nothing but an rearrangement of the tax musical chairs. Unfortunately, NY, CAL, NJ and other high real estate tax states are left standing when the music stopped.

Dec 28, 2017, 1:12pm Permalink
Bruce Wiseley

So Tom, why should the other "Low Tax" States have to subsidize the High Tax BLUE States??? Now Comrade Cuomo wants you to pay your taxes early, so those idiots in Albany can play with your money, interest free, and the IRS isn't even going to allow you the deduction. And, maybe that's why the #1 export for NY is PEOPLE!!! Why not pressure the elected criminals to lower State Taxes, instead of paying for all of the downstate "Mooch-a-Meals"??

Dec 28, 2017, 1:50pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

According to the New York Times tax calculator, most people will save money on their 2018 taxes.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/upshot/tax-calculator.ht…

As for blue states being subsidized by red states, three states -- New York, New Jersey, and California are net contributors to federal revenue. Meaning, for example, New Yorkers pay more in federal taxes than New Yorkers receive in federal benefits. So the red states subsidize blue states formulation is simply a myth.

Itemized deductions tend to favor the wealthy and distort the economy.

Doubling the standard deduction and eliminating a lot of deductions make sense, though the GOP didn't go as far as they promised, and what they promised wasn't going far enough (the home mortgage deduction should be completely eliminated).

Though I do think you should be able to deduct every penny you spend on taxes, otherwise you're being taxed twice on that income.

Economist Dean Baker has a novel idea for New York: Eliminate the personal income tax and institute a payroll tax. That tax would be collected pre-tax, so companies maintain the same gross payroll, employees take home the same amount of money, but their state taxes are paid with pre-tax dollars so the feds can't touch it. Sounds complicated to make the switch but makes a lot of sense.

Dec 28, 2017, 4:21pm Permalink
Tim Miller

Payroll taxes are by their nature regressive. Even SocSec is regressive as it hits those who do not hit the "max" harder than those who hit the max and whose earnings beyond that point are free.

Earnings are earnings. Capital gains have traditionally been taxed at a lower rate for two reasons. The first tries to account for inflation. The second, though, is to encourage investment. However, when corporations are sitting on over $2TRILLION in capital and are not investing it, it is time to remove that second "encouragement", and tax investment income at the same rates as earned (worked for) income.

Dec 28, 2017, 8:38pm Permalink

Authentically Local