“Surprise: Most NYers did well by Trump’s tax cuts but very rich at risk” (NY Post) says that, despite New York having the nation’s highest state and local tax burden and the limit on deductions for these taxes, the typical New Yorker actually paid less in 2018.
(Exception: “the big losers from the SALT cap are concentrated among the Empire State’s highest-earning residents, the 1-percenters who generate more than 40 percent of the state’s personal-income tax as well as an outsized share of New York City taxes.”)
This is counterintuitive. We should expect the new tax system to cut back on people in low-tax states subsidizing those in high-tax states (e.g., taxpayers in Nevada, New Hampshire, and Florida would no longer have to pay part of the cost of services provided in Manhattan). Maybe the answer is that almost everyone nationwide is getting a tax cut and folks who live in the highest tax states are getting a smaller one? Or New York is a special case because its taxes fall so heavily on a small percentage of its population?
I hope everyone is enjoying finalizing their tax returns. Should we have a contest in the comments to see who is grappling with the largest number of pages of forms? (Include forms for any LLCs or S Corps if you’re responsible for reviewing them, also for children if you need to file for them, and include 1099 and W-2 forms that you receive and review.) I think that I should clock in at roughly 500 pages this year.
I have a charitable idea for patriotic NYC 1%-ers committed to thriving NYC: give us working drones (proles) 100% raise from your taxable income, it is bound to reduce 1%-ers taxes, make us proles suffer increased tax liability and will do nothing to further heat up NYC real estate market, it still will be beyond proles’ ability to buy real estate in Manhattan
This year’s Federal and State returns run to 400 pages, spread over personal (104) and business (148+74+74). To be fair, that includes cover pages and overview letters from the accountant. Many thousands of $ paying the CPA to do all of this.
…oops, that doesn’t include the W-2s and 1099s. Maybe another 3 dozen pages there?
wow 500 pages! More money more problems! the 1040 form is 2 pages and most people can just use this.
Fed and state took at least 450 pages here (almost 4 inches thick). Screwed royaly by the SALT cap (property in Ma and NH) this year. Not a happy tax season. I’m nowhere near the 1 %. The bright side of the whole thing? The first page of the return will fit on a postcard, which was a talking point last election. And of course about a ream of paper needed to support that first page, plus postage to send saved for each return because they are filed electronically.
Wow, I thought over 100 pages was just a joke! Guess I’m the biggest loser here.
One page for 1040, one W2 stapled to that, one partial page for a 1040V (old fashioned, must be included when mailing a check in). The state return was worse, four pages.
Toucan Sam: where are you seeing 2 pages for a 1040?
My favorite line from the 1040 instructions: “The IRS can not accept a personal check for more than $100 million. Please use a different form of payment.”