unless I did something wrong, my taxes swung almost $900 the wrong way. $700 refund last year, this year I owe $165.

Some stuff did change, but still. UGHHHH.

I did my taxes today, too. Refund was down, but still more than what I had to pay to the state. Comparing witholding to last year I did pay less this year.

Scrappy, I'm sorry for your loss. It just hurts to say goodbye.

I'm so sorry, Scrappy.

One thing I've heard about this year's taxes is that there was less withholding/more in your paycheck, which might lead to lower refund/owing money, even if that doesn't reflect a difference in the amount of taxes you're paying.

My condolences, Scrappy and family.

Wow, I really don't want to be back at work.

{{ Scrappy }}

Yeah, withholding was reduced at least in part to make the tax bill more popular. Problem is that for most people the difference wasn't enough to really notice and when tax season comes, surprise! In hindsight, probably not the best plan.

Something interesting just happened this weekend. I was contacted by a company because they had seen my name in the opened-sourced IRIS code and apparently want to talk to me about a job. Well, initially they just wanted to ask some questions about the code but one thing led to another. Kinda awkward since I just accepted a job offer. Don't know if that will go anywhere or not.

Wow, I really don't want to be back at work.

I suppose you don't have to be there mentally.

unless I did something wrong, my taxes swung almost $900 the wrong way. $700 refund last year, this year I owe $165.

Yeah, you probably did not do anything wrong.

In addition to abusing the middle-class six ways to Sunday, while fellating the rich with the new tax laws, this mis-administration also reduced withholding, so people would see more money in their weekly checks, which would give the economy a little sugar high.

My tax story, let me show you it.

Dh was laid off from Job A at the end of 2017. He then got severance, which paid out monthly for some time in 2018, and was lucky enough to start Job B not too long into 2018, so as layoffs go, we were lucky.

We knew that because of all of the tax shenanigans, plus the months of extra pay, we'd be screwed come tax time, so for both the severance pay and his regular pay at the new job, he claimed zero allowances, plus had both employers withhold extra money from his check (see items 5 and 6: [link]

We filed our taxes Saturday. If not for a weird phenomenon which I'm against in principle, the accountant told us we would have had to pay an extra $5,000.00 out of pocket, in addition to all the extra dh had withheld from both workplaces.

See, both Job A and Job B withheld FICA from him, but he maxed out for the year in Job B, so the extra FICA payments deducted from the Job A severance are what saved our butts.

We're lucky that we're not the average family who does not have $400.00 for an emergency (but we have been, and in the not so distant past), but with college bills for two kids and all of our new medical bills, I would have had to ask the IRS if they would take that $5,000.00 out in trade. And I'm regular 52, and not a Demi Moore at 52, so I don't think my going rate would be that lucrative.