2018 Taxes - Did the tax cut hurt or help you?

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Originally Posted by brutal

My experience is they'll claim they sent you two letters that were ignored and the third will be a demanding letter threatening asset seizure or wage garnishment.

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Buddy reminded me that Credit Karma has a tax filing service for free. So I just went through and entered in all my applicable info, dependents, etc. -- essentially did the same thing HR Block did, and the return amount is estimated at the exact amount we had deposited.

I went by HR Block today and they said the glitch was related to child tax credit (confirming what they said on the phone).

So, at this point I think I'm out of the woods on this.

This money will go towards our mortgage payment's monthly nest egg. As of now we have 5 months of mortgage payments saved for when we move. That way, if the house doesn't sell or is delayed, we aren't tight on our budget at the new place due to paying rent/mortgage or mortgage/mortgage. If all goes quickly and well, we'll shift it to paying off any vehicle debt we may have at that time.

Once we do that, the only debt we will have is a house, when we decide to buy again.

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Originally Posted by Hummer

I think it's a darn shame that personal financial management isn't a required course study at the elementary, junior high and high school levels.

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They don't teach much about law either. Law and money seem to be taboo subjects. The rules on both seem to be changed around to suit our masters. It is a national disgrace, worse than military medicine.

My final numbers are in from the accountants.

$5,900 in my favor on the Fed comparing the 2017 1040 to 2018. With the 2017 I would have owed more, with the 2018 rules I get a refund.

I didn't even make that much last year, again, my worst year. With the biz income deduction there is a big incentive to make more.

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Originally Posted by Skip

My final numbers are in from the accountants.

$5,900 in my favor on the Fed comparing the 2017 1040 to 2018. With the 2017 I would have owed more, with the 2018 rules I get a refund.

I didn't even make that much last year, again, my worst year. With the biz income deduction there is a big incentive to make more.

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By our powers combined, we can make a heartfelt difference:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/24-000-Copi...~LpR:rk:2:pf:0

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Originally Posted by CavSct1983

By our powers combined, we can make a heartfelt difference:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/24-000-Copi...~LpR:rk:2:pf:0

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I would take out a 2nd and 3rd mortgage on my house if it meant the words mean what they plainly mean and all issues were settled without violence.

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Originally Posted by CavSct1983

So... hrm.

When we went through HR Block, they calculated our return at 454 dollars.

I just logged in to the bank account and saw our return direct deposited: way higher (6.5k).

So now I guess I gotta go back to HR Block and have them double look. I can?t imagine the IRS corrected HR Block and found a mistake in our favor. If they did, awesome. If not, then I want to get it back ASAP so we done get hit with interest charges on an erroneous return.

Anyone ever experienced this issue and have any advice on steps to take?

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Similar. One year they were off by about $2500 in the state?s favor. Was Block?s fault so I made them pay out in their guarantee. They screwed up two years in a row. I now use a professional.


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I've been using Block for about 12 years and never had a problem with anything like that.

Got the IRS letter today. They confirmed the proper return as was deposited and said that our return as filed was incorrect and they corrected it. According to HR Block there was a "glitch" in the system on calculating child tax credits. I asked if it was in their system or the IRS and they said the IRS. However, that makes very little sense to me unless HR Block's software is directly tied into the IRS for all actions -- something I find hard to believe; I'd think that would be a security nightmare in addition to the logistical PITA. Given that I would assume their folks go through training, up to and including "filing" full returns of varied natures in a sandboxed environment, I'd assume they have programmed their software to handle all transactions without having to tie into the IRS systems. So what this means, if that's true, is their software jacked up somewhere or they didn't enter something correctly.

Either way, I'll be handling my own taxes from now on. With the 24k deduction and other rule changes, and my rather simple financial situation, I cannot imagine I'd need a CPA or similar unless I do my own business or win the lottery.

I would go to H&R and demand a refund. Their service was of negative value to you.

I stopped using them in 2003 when my preparer was a moonlighting employee from my financial services firm with no tax background whatsoever. Realized it was just data entry. She actually asked me about eligibility on some moving expense (for a job).

CTC was another major change. Phase out was modified so a lot more folks qualify for it up to a yuge amount of income (married). But there is no excuse for not having this calculated correctly. YOUR INDEPENDENTS, AGE, AND SSNs GO AT THE TOP OF 1040!!! How could they mess that up? [LOL]

Another smaller change I found but didn't expect... The higher standard deduction ($24K married) eliminated my state add-back of state taxes withheld on my CO return. So this saved on my state taxes as well. You are only required to "add back" if you itemize. It's line 4 or 5 of CO 104. So I saved 4.63% on CO taxes withheld in 2018.

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Originally Posted by Skip

I would go to H&R and demand a refund. Their service was of negative value to you.

I stopped using them in 2003 when my preparer was a moonlighting employee from my financial services firm with no tax background whatsoever. Realized it was just data entry. She actually asked me about eligibility on some moving expense (for a job).

CTC was another major change. Phase out was modified so a lot more folks qualify for it up to a yuge amount of income (married). But there is no excuse for not having this calculated correctly. YOUR INDEPENDENTS, AGE, AND SSNs GO AT THE TOP OF 1040!!! How could they mess that up? [LOL]

Another smaller change I found but didn't expect... The higher standard deduction ($24K married) eliminated my state add-back of state taxes withheld on my CO return. So this saved on my state taxes as well. You are only required to "add back" if you itemize. It's line 4 or 5 of CO 104. So I saved 4.63% on CO taxes withheld in 2018.

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I dunno if they would refund. I can certainly try. I put the cost on a CC (paid off monthly), so I suppose I could always challenge the charge.