Anyone else prepaying property taxes so you can still deduct them this year?

[cruiser21]

You get a $500 credit for 18 to 22s (or as long as dependents), so it's not totally gone, just less.http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/20/new...reform-everything-you-need-to-know/index.html

At $165K, you should have $4950 in less tax just from the rate cut...and you were losing almost all your child tax credit anyway, since that started phasing out at $110K...are you sure you are as behind as you think? I guess I could see it if you itemized a lot in SALT or mortgage deduction...

Our taxes never went down when we plugged in our child tax credit under the old plan. It looks like with the new plan it will save a lot.

 

[kandb]

I don't live in TX (I'm from there). I currently live in CO. Housing prices are not as bad here in CO as it is for you there in NJ but it's definitely pretty high here (avg home in Denver is around 430k and avg salary is about 65k). Our home is a 500k home and we pay less than 3k in property taxes.

TX has great home prices but high property taxes. Many of my relatives pay 8-12k a year on 300k homes.

I knew NJ and NY had very high taxes. It is crazy and I truly feel for you guys. Are salaries higher to compensate for that? I don't know how people make it.

Yes, the cost of living is definitely higher in NY/NJ but the salaries are definitely higher. Most teachers retire making over $100K and after 5 years a police officer is making easily over $100K. Our taxes are higher also because of the high salaries government workers get paid but also very poor politicians who don't know how to manage all the money that gets brought in. Our taxes are just under $12K/year but our home is worth $700K minimally. We could move to another more fiscally responsible state but NJ is now our home, children are in the schools and we have a lot of family here, so hopefully the tax burden won't get too high.

 

[floridafam]

Do we really get $500 for 18-22 year olds? I haven’t seen that anywhere.

Do the education credits stay pretty much the same? We have two in college. Eek.

DH works for one of the companies that is doing the $1,000 bonus. I haven’t heard if that’s actually going to happen.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Do we really get $500 for 18-22 year olds? I haven’t seen that anywhere.

Do the education credits stay pretty much the same? We have two in college. Eek.

DH works for one of the companies that is doing the $1,000 bonus. I haven’t heard if that’s actually going to happen.

From the article I posted...

" 9. There's a new tax credit for non-child dependents, like elderly parents.
Taxpayers may now claim a $500 temporary credit for non-child dependents. This can apply to a number of people adults support, such as children over age 17, elderly parents or adult children with a disability."

13. By the way, you can still deduct student loan interest.
The deduction for student loan interest, which is up to $2,500 per year, is safe.

15. If you're a teacher, you can still deduct classroom supplies.
The deduction for teachers who spend their own money on school supplies was left alone. Educators can continue to deduct up to $250 to offset what they spend on classroom materials.

18. 529 savings accounts can be used in new ways.
In the past, funds invested in 529 savings accounts wasn't taxed -- but it could only be used for college expenses. Now, up to $10,000 can be distributed annually to cover the cost of sending a child to a "public, private or religious elementary or secondary school." This change is a win for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

19. And tuition waivers for grad students remain tax-free.
Graduate students still won't have to pay income taxes on the tuition waiver they get from their schools. Such waivers are typically awarded to teaching and research assistants."

Pretty much everything wrong for families got fixed, and it's a really family friendly bill...

 

[starry_solo]

Well they already have. Comcast and AT&T announced bonuses. Wells Fargo & Fifth Third announced hourly wage increases. Boeing has also indicated its workers will benefit.

AT&T just announced thousands of layoffs too:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/t-announces-thousands-layoffs-firings-205347737.html

 

[floridafam]

I’m not holding my breath for the bonus. I have a weird feeling that it won’t actually come through. We’ll see.

 

[havaneselover]

AT&T just announced thousands of layoffs too:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/t-announces-thousands-layoffs-firings-205347737.html

200k got bonuses. 600 were laid off. The layoffs are because of the way the industry is changing. Not much you can do about that. Legacy services is not really a great unit to work for

 

[supersnoop]

600 were laid off.

Plus 215 IT workers, plus 700 installers, plus 700 additional workers.

 

[Shanti]

I'm looking at prepaying my December mortgage payment (which typically would be automatically paid on January 1st), so that I can deduct the mortgage interest and December's portion of the real estate escrow on my 2017 taxes. I haven't done the math but am pretty sure I won't be able to itemize next year. I've already prepaid my 2018 donation to my church for this reason.

Has anyone here prepaid a monthly mortgage payment that is typically paid via automatic payment? Will the bank likely push back my next due date until February (skipping the January 1st payment), or will I just be paying double this time, essentially making an extra payment that has no effect on future due dates?

 

[Shanti]

I am just curious what you consider high home prices where you live in Texas. Here in NJ, in the county I live in, you cannot get a decent house for under $500K and for that price, you are getting a cape cod. Colonials or larger houses are usually around $750-2million and our taxes are usually a minimum of $10K a year but the large expensive houses pay up to $25K a YEAR. I know, it's crazy.

Home prices are like that right here in Austin. It is an incredibly expensive city to live in, plus high property taxes & high sales taxes.

 

[starry_solo]

I'm looking at prepaying my December mortgage payment (which typically would be automatically paid on January 1st), so that I can deduct the mortgage interest and December's portion of the real estate escrow on my 2017 taxes. I haven't done the math but am pretty sure I won't be able to itemize next year. I've already prepaid my 2018 donation to my church for this reason.

Has anyone here prepaid a monthly mortgage payment that is typically paid via automatic payment? Will the bank likely push back my next due date until February (skipping the January 1st payment), or will I just be paying double this time, essentially making an extra payment that has no effect on future due dates?

I don't do automatic payments so I can't help you. I had my stub to make a payment to, brought that and a check to the bank to make mine. So they knew to credit it towards January's payment.

 

[floridafam]

Does anyone here work for one of the companies that offered bonuses? Do you think they will actually happen?

 

[tvguy]

Does anyone here work for one of the companies that offered bonuses? Do you think they will actually happen?

Not currently. A former employer is giving out $1,000 bonuses to all 9,000 employees. Will they happen? They already happened. Employees got their bonuses last week.

 

[starry_solo]

Plus 215 IT workers, plus 700 installers, plus 700 additional workers.

How much do you think they made, on average? That's 2215 employees. If the average salary is $50,000 (excluding benefits), then that's $110 million!

 

[Alexle2007]

From the article I posted...

18. 529 savings accounts can be used in new ways.
In the past, funds invested in 529 savings accounts wasn't taxed -- but it could only be used for college expenses. Now, up to $10,000 can be distributed annually to cover the cost of sending a child to a "public, private or religious elementary or secondary school." This change is a win for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Pretty much everything wrong for families got fixed, and it's a really family friendly bill...

We haven’t done a 529 plan with only having one child and wanting to get funds stuck unused but this may help us move in that direction since we are definitely considering private school for our 6th grader who skipped a grade.

 

[tvguy]

How much do you think they made, on average? That's 2215 employees. If the average salary is $50,000 (excluding benefits), then that's $110 million!

Of course the reality is, with the stiff competition in the telecommunications industry, they were probably not needed anymore.

 

[Dakota731]

I'm not fond of the government picking winners and losers, but they seem to like doing so

And as one of the losing families for the past eight years, I’m glad to be finally on the winning side. My husband is hoping to retire in a few years so his booming IRAs have been a great Christmas gift to us. And the several small business owners in my family were very grateful for the relief they have gotten. For all the news coverage that the poor would be hurt by this bill, it seems to be those who have mortgages over $750000 and property taxes more than $10000 who are complaining. And no matter where you live those are not middle class numbers!

 

[Dakota731]

It’s an awful awful bill. It’s alarming really. Taxesare really pretty low already compared to history.Corporations that will make out the best will simply buy back their own stocks with their extra money. It’s not like they will ever pass that on to their employees. They historically don’t.

Remember you can always pay extra if you think your taxes are too low! As for me I’m enjoying my tax break. And I can’t belief we are in 2017 and people are still acting like corporations are the root of all evil. My husband works for a huge corporation that will hire more people, add more hours and pay more bonuses when they do well. Not to mention if corporations do poorly than so do do all of our retirement accounts! I have to laugh at all the tirades against evil corporations made by people typing on their Iphones sipping their Starbucks!

 

[Dakota731]

We are a middle class, modest income family in NJ and will pay thousands more.

THen remember that next time you vote for your state leaders. We in the the fiscally stable states have been subsidizing states (with our federal taxes) who aren’t financially responsible for years now (CA, NY, NJ, IL) so enough is enough

 

[Hikergirl]

THen remember that next time you vote for your state leaders. We in the the fiscally stable states have been subsidizing states (with our federal taxes) who aren’t financially responsible for years now (CA, NY, NJ, IL) so enough is enough

This is getting quite political and it may get closed but before it does I just want to say that maybe you should do some research on just which states are subsidizing others.