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

[DenverGP]

Just finished up my taxes for this year.

I had used an IRS calculator mid year which suggested my withholdings might be low, so I bumped up my 401k contrib and had a little more tax withholding for the last half of the year. Apparently over-corrected, because I'm getting back about $800.

I've seen a bunch of news stories about how peoples returns are lower this year. But that could just be because there was less withheld from their check all year due to the cuts, so therefore they weren't over-withheld by as much. If we used the "refund amount" like the news stories do, it would look the tax cut hurt me, because my refund was lower this year. But that's just because my withholdings were lower.

The important number is from the "total tax" line.

No change in living situation from last year. Last year I itemized all my deductions, mortgage interest, charitable contributions, etc. This year just used the standard $24000 deduction for married filing joint. My taxable income increased by $3000 (it actually increased by a larger amount, but I pushed most of the increase into my 401k). But my Total Tax line decreased by $1350.

So taxes were much easier, and I saved a bit.