HelloNewnan

After the 1st year or two, my accountant said "don't bother sending me any deduction paperwork. The AMT is going to kill you again".

sailingfun

I suspect you are going to cry when the AMT comes back. All those deductions were wiped out by the AMT anyway.
Turbo Tax; Congratulations you are getting 5600.00 refund. We just need to see if you are subject to the AMT to finish your tax return. Opps, sorry you owe 4700 dollars. How do you want to pay?
You were doing the AMT calculations I assume. They were not optional.

joepilot

As a general rule this is ALMOST correct. The rules used to state, up to the time I retired anyway, that a trip that required sleep of rest qualified for the per diem exemption. You could have a one day turn with a 7:30 layover with a hotel room provided by the airline. This would be a clear example of a trip that would qualify for the deduction. You could also have a turn that left at 22:00 and got back at 03:00. This would not qualify for the deduction.

iahflyr

TCJA tax increases mostly affected the upper middle class. It also affected single people more. I was an FO at the time (making 150-200k), and I was in a bracket where the marginal tax rate increased from 28% to 32% at the same income. I lost most of my SALT deduction for property tax and state income tax, and I lost all the deductions listed in the my last post. I did not hit AMT.

The rich got a huge tax cut, and the poor and lower middle class got a small tax cut. The upper middle class had many people who had a tax increase.

Bush cut taxes on 100% of American’s. Obama made those tax cuts permanent for 99% of American’s. Then Trump came in and actually raised taxes on ~20% of American’s.

GogglesPisano

If only we had a flat tax with zero deductions. But then they'd have to surrender some of their power.

Whoopsmybad

Then some people would actually have to pay taxes. And what would tax attorneys do?

GogglesPisano

Talk about disruption. It would put an entire industry out of work overnight.

Gspeed

Incredibly regressive to lower wage earners. #laughsinrich

GogglesPisano

You mean everyone pays the same tax rate regardless of income? How unfair /s.

CX500T

Provided it's even in the same ballpark as what I pay now (39% of check gone between taxes, insurance, other deductions after I max out 401k) I personally would just prefer a flat tax so it's "poof, gone" and then I don't have to worry about getting form XYZ, properly accounting for ABC then holding on to it for 7 years, etc.

I've been audited by the IRS. It's no fun.
"Sir you claimed $18,000 paid in alimony to this SSN, but they did not report it as income" (seriously, this was a point of contention) and then not having photocopies of the checks sent, became a huge PITA.
Then there was the "you rented out your house, reported X income in rent, but claimed $4300 in repairs" which I had all the Lowes/Home Depot reciepts for and then they wanted PICTURES. Yeah. they were on 2 phones ago man. I don't know what wall that 15 A plug went into but I can tell you all that ROMEX and outlets, and old work boxes were from when I replaced the 2 prong plugs with modern 3 prong plugs, but no I didn't take pictures"

That audit was triggered because Bank of America sent a check, and a 1099 to a house I hadn't live in for 8 years. And had no idea to expect a check. To this day BoA can't tell me why they sent me the check, but the IRS knew I had unreported income and the fun began. Also, if the !#*&$ing IRS knows every thing that you got issued a 1099, W2, 1098 etc for, why can't I just go download that all on one website. Or at least see "hmm, 1099 from BoA.. I never got that.. I should call them.

Even now, where I only own the house I live in, and can't write off much, it's still a PITA