Treasury officials say smaller tax refunds are a good thing

Treasury officials say smaller tax refunds are a good thing
Donna Borak byline
By Donna Borak, CNN
Updated 1:07 PM ET, Thu February 14, 2019


The average refund is down nearly 9% so far this filing season, according to updated data released Thursday by the Internal Revenue Service.

The new rules lowered most individual rates and nearly doubled the standard deduction. The legislation also included sweeping tax cuts for companies, lowering the corporate rate to 21% from 35%.

Click to expand...

Republican can sell anything to the mass of imbeciles who fall for this line, while they run around smiling about getting an average of $2.50 a day, in tax benefits. At the same time, seeing wages stagnated with the smallest bump imaginable... and the over-all offset is "A LOSS" to the average working persons.

* Inflation continues to kick in and eat's up that $2.50,
* then add in the loss of scaled down services from every kind of service provider out in the market place,
* then compound that with the damaging product cost increase caused by the Trade Wars.....
* Product volume reduced....

All the while they gaming is going on to "kick up the "Interest Rate", because of the rapidness of having added 2 Trillion to the Debt. As the Industrialist and Financial Industry is in overdrive mode to claim they need "interest rates" to rise if they are to back lending for growth.

While the Executives of Industry, Too that Tax Cut Windfall, and "bought back stock" to increase their own value holdings, while doing absolutely nothing to build and expanding industrial growth.

THE GAME OF THE PLUTOCRATS... Continues... and people run to these Trump "Belligerent Fest" like devoted Cultist... validating their acceptance of being fleeced..... all so they can get and have the publicity of having someone to look down upon (i.e. Mexicans).....

Trump closed the government and cost the nations Billions, and damaged some people who may never recover, and when they push the issue of continuing attacks on and at Mexico, it will by the right of dignity for and of itself and its people, 'increase the cost of the huge volume of vegetation, it sells to the U.S. and other goods that we have to import, because every-thing has been gobbled up in America by Corporate Entities, who have lessened the product volume, lowered the quality, and if its edible, some have saturated it with chemicals of various sort. This is what happens when "Plutocrats, value Money over a nation and its people... and only want Money and Power to dictate to and over the people.

If this is not clear of exactly how Republicans have attacked and convoluted our system of Governance and their continuance of the madness, while Trump plots to pushed a "fake emergency" as a symbol to give his cult members their lusting aims of having symbols and acts that support their wanting to have "someone to look down upon". Any who can't see it, its only because people are not paying attention, or still blindly lusting for a remake of 1950's.

It's EXACTLY as LBJ Said: and these Right Wing "Cult Followers" continue to prove it true, yet again, again and again.

President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

Click to expand...

RealityNow said:

Republican can sell anything to the mass of imbeciles who fall for this line, while they run around smiling about getting an average of $2.50 a day, in tax benefits. At the same time, seeing wages stagnated with the smallest bump imaginable... and the over-all offset is "A LOSS" to the average working persons.
* Inflation continues to kick in and eat's up that $2.50,
*then add in the loss of scaled down services from every kind of service provider out in the market place,
*then compound that with the damaging increase caused by the Trade Wars.....

All the while they gaming is going on to "kick up the "Interest Rate", because of the rapidness of having added 2 Trillion to the Debt. As the Industrialist and Financial Industry is in overdrive mode to claim they need "interest rates" to rise if they are to back lending for growth.

While the Executives of Industry, Too that Tax Cut Windfall, and "bought back stock" to increase their own value holdings, while doing absolutely nothing to build and expanding industrial growth.

THE GAME OF THE PLUTOCRATS... Continues... and people run to these Trump "Belligerent Fest" like devoted Cultist... validating their acceptance of being fleeced..... all so they can get and have the publicity of having someone to look down upon (i.e. Mexicans).....

Trump closed the government and cost the nations Billions, and damaged some people who may never recover, and when they push the issue of continuing attacks on and at Mexico, it will by the right of dignity for and of itself and its people, 'increase the cost of the huge volume of vegetation, it sells to the U.S. and other goods that we have to import, because every-thing has been gobbled up in America by Corporate Entities, who have lessened the product volume, lowered the quality, and if its edible, some have saturated it with chemicals of various sort. This is what happens when "Plutocrats, value Money over a nation and its people... and only want Money and Power to dictate to and over the people.

If this is not clear of exactly how Republican have attacked and convoluted our system of Governance, its only because people are not paying attention, or still blindly lusting for a remake of 1950's.

Click to expand...

The question isn't the size of the refund but the amount withheld throughout the tax year.

THE NATIONAL DEBT IS NOW MORE THAN $22 TRILLION. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

The interest that we pay on the federal debt is now the fastest growing part of the budget, and will total $7 trillion over the next decade. In fact, we’ll soon be spending more on interest annually than we do on children or national defense.

Click to expand...

How the ballooning $22 trillion national debt will affect Americans
More than halfway through his presidency, Trump has seen the national debt increase at the fastest rate since 2012. The annual deficit is projected to rise 15.1% this year from $779 billion in 2018. By 2022, it will hit $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

There are a few reasons. The most recent can be attributed to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). According to estimates by the CBO, TCJA will add $1.9 trillion to the national debt. Congress also increased spending on the military and domestic programs in a spending bill that topped $1.3 trillion dollars. But that isn’t all. An aging population has increased spending on healthcare, while retiring Baby Boomers put a strain on Social Security.
The expanding national debt will impact everyone.

the risk would rise of investors’ being unwilling to finance the government’s borrowing unless they were compensated with very high interest rates. If that occurred, interest rates on federal debt would rise suddenly and sharply relative to rates of return on other assets.”

Families would also take a more direct financial hit in addition to increased interest rates on loans and mortgages. The CBO estimates that with current projections, the national debt will reduce a family’s income by $16,000 by 2048.
[/quote]

If investor raise their interest rates, "all" interest rates will spike up... If the investor pay higher int erst rates it will be passed along to everything in our society, that is supported and backed by debt. including what business and industry borrow to sustain their business with lines of credit.

At some point, people will begin to know the damage that the $1.x Trillion Trump gave to the wealthy. Then plan to borrow for Infrastructure, when that tax money he gave to the wealthy could have been directed toward "infrastructure projects", "better education and access to education"... it is a fact, an "educated society, becomes a more health conscience society"... and that helps lower health care cost, along with placing "Cost Caps" on Medicines ( which is partially funded by grant based funding).. and Cost on Medical Testing and Medical Procedures.

People need to go back and learn and look at the "Tax Rate" during the Boom Years of America, when Industry Paid Union Wage and Benefits.... and in the combination of such existing, America Grew Faster and Stronger Than Any Country On The Planet.

Corporate profits were relatively high throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, and fell throughout the 1960s and 1970s to reach a low in 1982. and we've been in a downward spiral within Industrial Decline and Massive Outsourcing and Stashing of Profits Offshore, and stagnated wages and stripped away benefits !!!!

U.S. GDP grew by almost 4 percent annually in the 1950s compared with a 1.8 percent growth rate in the 2000s. (Now this was no accident). Lower tax means, there was no incentive to invest and re-invest in American Business, Stability, Growth and Expansion, They ( Industrialist and Wealthy Business Owners" no longer needed to, to gain lower tax by investment write off, they were given the money "free" with no responsibility or incentive to be responsible to invest in American Stability nor American Industrial Growth.

They went directly into the game of "Merger's and Acquisition"... the drive of "Junk Bonds" became the money making scheme, and that has been followed up with CDS (Credit Default Swap), CDO's (collateralize debt obligation (CDO) which is a type of structured asset-backed security (ABS) all spun into a frenzy of fiction and casino gaming supported by every kind of "Hedge Fund which has sent speculation valuation into "overdrive"...

It's easy to send people off on a tangent with Political Party Gaming, to wrap them into "emotionalism" fed by daily drama, that feed political divisiveness, which is key to "divide and conquer the masses".... while "plutocracy marches onward in America. Playing people with the "historical biases, and racist bias" which has been a tool used since the days of slavery and throughout the 100 yrs of segregation. The Political Frenzy of Party Madness that is played out by the Republican upon its constituency, while its acts pander and provide every benefit of the nations system and its resources to the wealthy, and FEIGN at any thought of anything that might be of benefit and help to the general population. they use Bigotry, Race Bias and the history of Ethnic and Racial Stereotyped Stigma, to push the divide as we see today, into a "blazing flame of anguish and madness"..... "Blinding the people"... to what is being done to the general public society of Americans.

Democratic Ideals are promoting the Change that Focus on the People... and putting constraints on the Republican Aims to Promote Industry and Business to Usurp the Values and Concerns of the People.

We see it with the assault on Climate and Environment, We see it with the Attack on Regulatory Governance... all of such, which concerns a better society for people. Every act of Regulatory Governance, was researched and developed to protect the people, and in many cases to protect people from the ravages of how Industry has such little regard for the damages it cause to the environments and communities of people.

But... sadly... People just refuse to think, they refuse to let go of old time madness and systems of self defeat, and awaken ... Its the damnest thing, to try and get people to read and learn, to think and grow... to pay attention and be aware.... Some think they can cling to the past and remake yesterday, when fact is, the systems of yesterdays... was not "humanely fair" to American People... not to poor whites, not to minorities and not to women. So those who get lost in "Confabulated Folklore" as they reminisce about fictions told through the tales of fancy and fictions of self delusions, so... they simply refuse to learn the truth, face the truths, and grow ...... !!!!

Smaller tax refunds are a good thing. It means that the IRS didn't take too much of your money and wait until the end of the year to give it back.

RealityNow said:

Republican can sell anything to the mass of imbeciles who fall for this line, while they run around smiling about getting an average of $2.50 a day, in tax benefits. At the same time, seeing wages stagnated with the smallest bump imaginable... and the over-all offset is "A LOSS" to the average working persons.

* Inflation continues to kick in and eat's up that $2.50,
* then add in the loss of scaled down services from every kind of service provider out in the market place,
* then compound that with the damaging product cost increase caused by the Trade Wars.....
* Product volume reduced....

All the while they gaming is going on to "kick up the "Interest Rate", because of the rapidness of having added 2 Trillion to the Debt. As the Industrialist and Financial Industry is in overdrive mode to claim they need "interest rates" to rise if they are to back lending for growth.

While the Executives of Industry, Too that Tax Cut Windfall, and "bought back stock" to increase their own value holdings, while doing absolutely nothing to build and expanding industrial growth.

THE GAME OF THE PLUTOCRATS... Continues... and people run to these Trump "Belligerent Fest" like devoted Cultist... validating their acceptance of being fleeced..... all so they can get and have the publicity of having someone to look down upon (i.e. Mexicans).....

Trump closed the government and cost the nations Billions, and damaged some people who may never recover, and when they push the issue of continuing attacks on and at Mexico, it will by the right of dignity for and of itself and its people, 'increase the cost of the huge volume of vegetation, it sells to the U.S. and other goods that we have to import, because every-thing has been gobbled up in America by Corporate Entities, who have lessened the product volume, lowered the quality, and if its edible, some have saturated it with chemicals of various sort. This is what happens when "Plutocrats, value Money over a nation and its people... and only want Money and Power to dictate to and over the people.

If this is not clear of exactly how Republicans have attacked and convoluted our system of Governance and their continuance of the madness, while Trump plots to pushed a "fake emergency" as a symbol to give his cult members their lusting aims of having symbols and acts that support their wanting to have "someone to look down upon". Any who can't see it, its only because people are not paying attention, or still blindly lusting for a remake of 1950's.

It's EXACTLY as LBJ Said: and these Right Wing "Cult Followers" continue to prove it true, yet again, again and again.

Click to expand...

You pay in less taxes; you get a smaller refund. It ain't rocket science.

RealityNow said:

U.S. GDP grew by almost 4 percent annually in the 1950s compared with a 1.8 percent growth rate in the 2000s. (Now this was no accident). Lower tax means, there was no incentive to invest and re-invest in American Business, Stability, Growth and Expansion, They ( Industrialist and Wealthy Business Owners" no longer needed to, to gain lower tax by investment write off, they were given the money "free" with no responsibility or incentive to be responsible to invest in American Stability nor American Industrial Growth.

They went directly into the game of "Merger's and Acquisition"... the drive of "Junk Bonds" became the money making scheme, and that has been followed up with CDS (Credit Default Swap), CDO's (collateralize debt obligation (CDO) which is a type of structured asset-backed security (ABS) all spun into a frenzy of fiction and casino gaming supported by every kind of "Hedge Fund which has sent speculation valuation into "overdrive"...

It's easy to send people off on a tangent with Political Party Gaming, to wrap them into "emotionalism" fed by daily drama, that feed political divisiveness, which is key to "divide and conquer the masses".... while "plutocracy marches onward in America. Playing people with the "historical biases, and racist bias" which has been a tool used since the days of slavery and throughout the 100 yrs of segregation. The Political Frenzy of Party Madness that is played out by the Republican upon its constituency, while its acts pander and provide every benefit of the nations system and its resources to the wealthy, and FEIGN at any thought of anything that might be of benefit and help to the general population. they use Bigotry, Race Bias and the history of Ethnic and Racial Stereotyped Stigma, to push the divide as we see today, into a "blazing flame of anguish and madness"..... "Blinding the people"... to what is being done to the general public society of Americans.

Democratic Ideals are promoting the Change that Focus on the People... and putting constraints on the Republican Aims to Promote Industry and Business to Usurp the Values and Concerns of the People.

We see it with the assault on Climate and Environment, We see it with the Attack on Regulatory Governance... all of such, which concerns a better society for people. Every act of Regulatory Governance, was researched and developed to protect the people, and in many cases to protect people from the ravages of how Industry has such little regard for the damages it cause to the environments and communities of people.

But... sadly... People just refuse to think, they refuse to let go of old time madness and systems of self defeat, and awaken ... Its the damnest thing, to try and get people to read and learn, to think and grow... to pay attention and be aware.... Some think they can cling to the past and remake yesterday, when fact is, the systems of yesterdays... was not "humanely fair" to American People... not to poor whites, not to minorities and not to women. So those who get lost in "Confabulated Folklore" as they reminisce about fictions told through the tales of fancy and fictions of self delusions, so... they simply refuse to learn the truth, face the truths, and grow ...... !!!!

Click to expand...

IOW, communism?

lwf said:

Smaller tax refunds are a good thing. It means that the IRS didn't take too much of your money and wait until the end of the year to give it back.

Click to expand...

And that is all that needs to be said about it and it has been explained even in simplified form in other articles around the internet. But you'll have the Democrats trying to spin and weaponize it trying to sell people flawed logic for political expediency.

cabse5 said:

The question isn't the size of the refund but the amount withheld throughout the tax year.

Click to expand...

Thank you for missing "the span and scope of elements and factors being addressed".... :doh

realitynow said:

republican can sell anything to the mass of imbeciles]

Click to expand...

qft..

Its always better to engage with people who invest in thinking beyond trying to find a "slap stick cut and dried way to appease their own mind"...

I personally, am not of the concern to adopt such manner and mode.

Study works wonders for any who have the will, the attention span and care to do so... those who don't "get what they get", and even become delighted with being fleeced, and thrilled beyond any motivation to "think" while being fed self defeating drama spins while the fleecing is being engaged. It pretty much describes the Republican claimed Conservatives Constituency and their ideological manner of being.

Therefore, I speak more to those who choose to think and investigate the matter with concerns for discerning the factors to pursue the clarity in perspectives for better understanding of the damages being done to society.

Thus so... "feeding the bicker seekers, is not a drama spin that I care to engage".

When Trump moves with his FICTIONAL Emergency, and deplete funds from established and specific program and agencies... when the ripple effect of that depletion comes full circle... Then, let's see how the cult minions... deal with the devastation that come with it.

Don't ignore the national debt. It will only get worse if we don't act now

It is becoming fashionable to argue that federal budget deficits don't matter and that the government can undertake vast new spending programs without new taxes. This is not the time, however, to get wobbly about long-term fiscal policy. While it's not crucial to reduce this year's budget deficit, it still makes sense to phase in judicious spending reductions or tax increases that reduce long-term debt.

Although debt that finances government investment can boost the economy in the long term, federal investment in infrastructure and human capital is slated to decline as a share of the economy. Instead, the debts we are projected to accumulate stem largely from an aging population and large, poorly targeted tax cuts. As a result, the sustained deficits will reduce future national income. Deficits tend to reduce national saving — the sum of saving by the private and public sector. Once current national saving falls, future national income will also be dragged down. This could happen through higher interest rates, which choke off investment and reduce future production and income. Or it could happen through capital inflows, which allow us to maintain production but require the nation to repay its debts to foreign lenders.

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We better look at our recent history... and "Learn"..... Obama Tax Cuts Facts and Consequences
[/quote]

Very different dynamic's surrounding "Tax Cuts"..... The work of the Obama Administration to get the economy up and going, after the disaster economic downfall during 2007-2009... had stragetic benefit for Americans, the economy and the nation. Where As, Trump Tax cuts benefitted the wealthy, and were not necessary when Obama already had set the economy on a positive trajectory. People like to have "Selective Amnesia" and other simply don't care to learn facts and truths......

Why we pay taxes

apdst said:

You pay in less taxes; you get a smaller refund. It ain't rocket science.

Click to expand...

That's how I always tried to structure mine....although this year I got kinda screwed, my own fault, but had to pay more in, first time in over a decade...

Sent from my SM-T587P using Tapatalk

People who only see today... blind themselves to whats to come. Presidential Acts vertebrata for decades!!!! For the Wealthy and the Industrialist, they are set by this Administration to last "forever", but only for less than a 1/2 decade for the working poor....

AN ATROCITY... is established!!! And these people sanction and promote the devastation of their own offspring's future. Lust and Obsessions over Trump has blinded their minds that can't see beyond the bigotry and divisiveness that he promotes, while they bask in the delights of bigoted madness. The fleecing goes into over-drive, while he attack with malice every institutional and policy standards of the Governance System and IGNORES the basic desperation of governmental powers.

This is what happens when "ignorance is more pervasively desired over the will to read, learn and grow"... !!!!

They run fast when they can't find a thread to play "bully stomping slap stick drama spins".... then... silence hits them like they were ran over with a steam roller. They go "flat" !!!!

Amazon will pay $0 in taxes on $11,200,000,000 in profit for 2018
Thanks to the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Amazon’s federal tax responsibility is 21% (down from 35% in previous years). But with the help of tax breaks, according to corporate filings, Amazon won’t be paying a dime to Uncle Sam despite posting more than $11.2 billion in profits in 2018.
Kristin Myers Yahoo FinanceFebruary 16, 2019

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From the images at the Trump Rally's... these people don't have a clue of the ways the world is changing and the need for tax revenue within and of the nation is greater than any time before in the history of the nation.
Modernization is a "desperate need".... we have under secured government data system, we have antiquated process, where data systems that need to talk to each other can't and don't. Yet, these "blind minded minions"... are unaware of what the tax cut damages is doing to the potential for the future.
Not just in roadway infrastructure, but technology infrastructure, medical system infrastructure... and the complete systems of the nations. Most cities have water and sewer systems that are more than 60-80 yrs old in desperate need of federal funds to modernize and upgrade. Our Electrical Grid already can't withstand some of the Natural and Ever Cycling Weather Related impacts.

But, all they can think is "Hail Trump" their "Cult Leader" whom they think will usher back in the social structures and civic systems of the 1950's. They whined and cried they have been left behind, only because "they run backwards, chasing the past"... unaware that a future is unfolding all around them. They simply push and drive themselves in a cult driven mass, on a fast trek trying to chase yesterdays. Some even making up fictions about stuff like their granddaddy's old broken down truck... unaware how pissed off the granddaddy was that he could not upgrade and maintain the truck, because if he could have it would not have been broken down.
But such "CONFABULATED FICTIONS" they call the good ole days, when they could bully stomp around thinking their skin made them something their character could not become. They passed that on with pride, and ignorance has spread at the exact same pace. They are purely unaware that what they call the "good ole days" were far less glorious than they have engaged the fictional folklore to pretend. They are the descendants of the generationally poor, and today they are made poorer because of their delusions and fictions of trying to chase a folklore fantasy of yesterday... driven by pure "confabulated mental concepts".

RealityNow said:

How the ballooning $22 trillion national debt will affect Americans
More than halfway through his presidency, Trump has seen the national debt increase at the fastest rate since 2012. The annual deficit is projected to rise 15.1% this year from $779 billion in 2018. By 2022, it will hit $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

There are a few reasons. The most recent can be attributed to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). According to estimates by the CBO, TCJA will add $1.9 trillion to the national debt. Congress also increased spending on the military and domestic programs in a spending bill that topped $1.3 trillion dollars. But that isn’t all. An aging population has increased spending on healthcare, while retiring Baby Boomers put a strain on Social Security.
The expanding national debt will impact everyone.

the risk would rise of investors’ being unwilling to finance the government’s borrowing unless they were compensated with very high interest rates. If that occurred, interest rates on federal debt would rise suddenly and sharply relative to rates of return on other assets.”

Families would also take a more direct financial hit in addition to increased interest rates on loans and mortgages. The CBO estimates that with current projections, the national debt will reduce a family’s income by $16,000 by 2048.

Click to expand...

If investor raise their interest rates, "all" interest rates will spike up... If the investor pay higher int erst rates it will be passed along to everything in our society, that is supported and backed by debt. including what business and industry borrow to sustain their business with lines of credit.

At some point, people will begin to know the damage that the $1.x Trillion Trump gave to the wealthy. Then plan to borrow for Infrastructure, when that tax money he gave to the wealthy could have been directed toward "infrastructure projects", "better education and access to education"... it is a fact, an "educated society, becomes a more health conscience society"... and that helps lower health care cost, along with placing "Cost Caps" on Medicines ( which is partially funded by grant based funding).. and Cost on Medical Testing and Medical Procedures.

People need to go back and learn and look at the "Tax Rate" during the Boom Years of America, when Industry Paid Union Wage and Benefits.... and in the combination of such existing, America Grew Faster and Stronger Than Any Country On The Planet.

Corporate profits were relatively high throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, and fell throughout the 1960s and 1970s to reach a low in 1982. and we've been in a downward spiral within Industrial Decline and Massive Outsourcing and Stashing of Profits Offshore, and stagnated wages and stripped away benefits !!!![/QUOTE]

Tell you what, how about you liberal/progressive/whatevers put in the 2020 platform that you will raise everyones taxes 15% a year, and promise that every penny will be used to reduce the National Debt? I wonder if they have the strength of their "convictions". My bet is no.

smallvoice said:

If investor raise their interest rates, "all" interest rates will spike up... If the investor pay higher int erst rates it will be passed along to everything in our society, that is supported and backed by debt. including what business and industry borrow to sustain their business with lines of credit.

At some point, people will begin to know the damage that the $1.x Trillion Trump gave to the wealthy. Then plan to borrow for Infrastructure, when that tax money he gave to the wealthy could have been directed toward "infrastructure projects", "better education and access to education"... it is a fact, an "educated society, becomes a more health conscience society"... and that helps lower health care cost, along with placing "Cost Caps" on Medicines ( which is partially funded by grant based funding).. and Cost on Medical Testing and Medical Procedures.

People need to go back and learn and look at the "Tax Rate" during the Boom Years of America, when Industry Paid Union Wage and Benefits.... and in the combination of such existing, America Grew Faster and Stronger Than Any Country On The Planet.

Corporate profits were relatively high throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, and fell throughout the 1960s and 1970s to reach a low in 1982. and we've been in a downward spiral within Industrial Decline and Massive Outsourcing and Stashing of Profits Offshore, and stagnated wages and stripped away benefits !!!!

Click to expand...

Tell you what, how about you liberal/progressive/whatevers put in the 2020 platform that you will raise everyones taxes 15% a year, and promise that every penny will be used to reduce the National Debt? I wonder if they have the strength of their "convictions". My bet is no.

Click to expand...

If that's the small perspective of your view.... You've missed the elements of the commentary..... being a Conservative as your handle indicates, I'm not surprised.

One thing you won't hear from the as you call it "liberal/progressive /whatever... They won't be saying "we've been left behind", because they know that the future is fast unfolding and they are not only thinking, they are reading, learning and growing and not trying to fight the future of growth and change that is based on the equality of the American Citizen in all its Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Glory.... They are already building the future, they know the value of protecting the environment, and they understand the necessity of a society having and promoting "regulatory governance" that benefits a "democratic society"... of people who are all "equals, as person and individual.
You guys go ahead and wish for the return of the rotary dial phone, and stomping around thinking and lusting with a vain hope that you can recreate the past of a segregated society.... while you worship the fleecing games that is a standard policy and system of protocol structured containment of the under-educated and the uneducated who embraces the elements of bias and bigotry.... I'm sure it has served you well.... "that's why the chant of "we want our country back" followed by "we've been left behind"....

It was never "your country" in the first place... its The Whole Spectrum of the Multicultural and Multi-ethnic people who make up what is the society of American People whom all reside in and upon and across this land. It does not matter if "conservatives" and the "right wing collective" like it or don't like it, its a "Fact of America"...

RealityNow said:

If that's the small perspective of your view.... You've missed the elements of the commentary..... being a Conservative as your handle indicates, I'm not surprised.

One thing you won't hear from the as you call it "liberal/progressive /whatever... They won't be saying "we've been left behind", because they know that the future is fast unfolding and they are not only thinking, they are reading, learning and growing and not trying to fight the future of growth and change that is based on the equality of the American Citizen in all its Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Glory.... They are already building the future, they know the value of protecting the environment, and they understand the necessity of a society having and promoting "regulatory governance" that benefits a "democratic society"... of people who are all "equals, as person and individual.
You guys go ahead and wish for the return of the rotary dial phone, and stomping around thinking and lusting with a vain hope that you can recreate the past of a segregated society.... while you worship the fleecing games that is a standard policy and system of protocol structured containment of the under-educated and the uneducated who embraces the elements of bias and bigotry.... I'm sure it has served you well.... "that's why the chant of "we want our country back" followed by "we've been left behind"....

It was never "your country" in the first place... its The Whole Spectrum of the Multicultural and Multi-ethnic people who make up what is the society of American People whom all reside in and upon and across this land. It does not matter if "conservatives" and the "right wing collective" like it or don't like it, its a "Fact of America"...

Click to expand...

You have proven that you once again along with about 85% of the other people out there do not understand how taxes work.
I will give you a quick run down just to give you a simple education.

Through the year most people make a pay check. out of that pay check comes withholding taxes.
These are sent to the federal government.

At the end of the year you reconcile what you should have paid the government and what you shouldn't have paid the government.

This is known as your tax liability.

So you calculate what you paid through withholdings to what you should have paid.
If withholding is greater than what you owe then you get a refund.
if it is less than what you owe then you have to pay.

Now people getting less of a refund this year compared to last year is meaningless. it usually means they are getting more money in their checks.
what you have to compare is your tax liability last year compared to his year.

that is the key part.

if what you owe is < what you owed last year then you are getting a tax cut.

ludin said:

You have proven that you once again along with about 85% of the other people out there do not understand how taxes work.
I will give you a quick run down just to give you a simple education.

Through the year most people make a pay check. out of that pay check comes withholding taxes.
These are sent to the federal government.

At the end of the year you reconcile what you should have paid the government and what you shouldn't have paid the government.

This is known as your tax liability.

So you calculate what you paid through withholdings to what you should have paid.
If withholding is greater than what you owe then you get a refund.
if it is less than what you owe then you have to pay.

Now people getting less of a refund this year compared to last year is meaningless. it usually means they are getting more money in their checks.
what you have to compare is your tax liability last year compared to his year.

that is the key part.

if what you owe is < what you owed last year then you are getting a tax cut.

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I understand clearly how tax deduction work... the point is... about the "pittance" people get during the year, while the Tax Cuts was of design to avert the wealthy from paying their taxes on extremely high volumes of income. Both during the year, and with a lesser liability at the end of the year... the working people may have gotten a bump in standard deduction amounts, but so did the wealthy retain a mass of their write off's... We don't see a reinvestment by the Industry of the saving during the year, we saw them "buy back stock", and the monies buried offshore did not return !!!

The bigger picture is that' We did not need a tax cut" for the wealthy... certainly not one that is made permanent, while the working got a fixed term tax cut that is slated to go away.
It was an over-all ill designed plan... Bush Tax Cuts had been renewed by Obama.... Our concerns were already existing of the need for the variety of infrastructure programs needed, we already suffered a massive drain by the loss of industry, and the lowered wages of the working, and now ... we are at greater deficit, as indicated by the escalation of debt, the lack of any infrastructure projects being nation wide, education has not received what it needs, instead Betsy Devos has continued to attack educations... There is no nation wide skill training programs and government subsidies to the wealthy industries has no decreased and we still have made no improvements in health care. Now... is any or all of that worth only $2.50 or so a day to the general citizen population. I think not.
people generally during the year worked with the taxes they paid, and many used their "income taxes" to cover the expense that inflation during the year brought to them, I don't think $2.50 or so day, gave them greater benefit during the year, when as I stated above.... the elements of increase that consumed it as well as the losses they experience by services being reduced in commercial business, product quality size and quantity reduced, while the cost of goods and services has seen an increase. Then compound that with the cost increase generated by the "Trade Wars"..... it amounts to a "loss for the average citizen population" in every respect.
Go to the store and take note of the cost increase among the grocery items, and the bump up in cost for services of all sort. None of those things decreased because of a lifetime reduction in taxes to the wealthy industries.

You look at the simple version, that ignores all such elements that impact and affect the everyday working Americans. But, if that is all you want to factor, then if that suits your concept of satisfaction... then you are certainly by free in choice to be of such satisfaction. One should realize such satisfaction comes with an "expense"....

lwf said:

Smaller tax refunds are a good thing. It means that the IRS didn't take too much of your money and wait until the end of the year to give it back.

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Bad for the gov't who wishes to spend our money like it was going out of style...and we can deposit that money normally held by the gov't into funds like CDs, etc., to earn for ourselves...which also means the gov't's debt is probably increasing due to lower tax refunds.

When I see such low readership of threads as such... it tells a story....

We are a society that must become better in our concerns for "critical thinking", and thinking in terms to explore variables for better discerning clarity that extends just beyond our surface levels of satisfactions, without considering the impacts that extend far and beyond ourselves.

Many people live with absolutely no thought of the fact that America is as it is in its historical growth, becasue of our governance system and the system of taxation. If not for such, we'd be like any "third world" nation that has a weak system of governance administration and a poor system of economic design, that leaves a deficit in the system of taxation, that has not the resources to modernize and advance the regulatory managed growth that makes a nation stable and strong. It is these things that have made us a nation that is able to develop and devise regulatory policies and laws that allow us to grow and not damage ourselves within the process of growth. That cost money, and that money comes from "taxation".
We can drive from one side of the nation to the next, and that's possible because of the taxation that afforded us to build those roadways, we can get on the Airplane and fly where we want, because we have tax supported systems that invested to set regulatory standards, in what makes Air Travel safe and how the system functions. We have National Parks, they don't exist for free, that should have been learned during the government shut down, it cost money to maintain and manage them, and that comes through tax income the nation generates and utilizes. Business does not grow without the infrastructure to support its existence and make possible its growth; that too, exist and is able to flourish because of taxation.
These people who whine about "less government" have too much of the concepts of savagery driving them, because the laws of principles that make a democracy work, is that as we grow, we must manage that growth by regulatory governance... and that cost money.

We see everyday the ongoing need for "regulatory management of Internet companies' and especially in 'social media" to avoid it from the gross increase in abuses, it takes money to address the areas these industries try to circumvent to exploit the data of people and use people as a product, with little regard of or for the true level of privacy of the individual. We should have across the board status of illegality, for any such companies to "sell the data of people", be it purchasing habit, or search habits. If a company wants to do marketing research, then do it the by monitoring by their inventory and service performance. Not by "covertly acquiring the data of people", when they use platforms, that have no direct relation to a particular business of product seller or service provider. We have "absolutely" no control of these systems retaining our data, and using it for any purpose they can conjure up for the sake of their profit, while leaving the user of such systems blind to the abuse of their data. It takes "tax funds" to fight this madness. These are only a few points of the matter about the benefits of taxation... the list can go on and on and on... But.. many people care not to think, learn, investigate to be aware and know of what is the benefits of taxation to the society in which is America.

We .. THE PEOPLE... have the ability to conduct oversight.. it starts with knowing who we elect!!!!! many people play the blind party game, and we see now that politicians have lost the ability to be independent representative of people, they have made themselves into a "cult", where as is seen in the Republican Ranks especially in overt display, the attacks on individual elected people, if they don't vote party lines. We have seen Trump launch personal attacks on Republican who don't side up with him. We saw it in the extreme sense of the disgraceful attacks he made upon John McCain, when McCain did not go for his "kill a mass of people, inhumane health programs, which was less about health and more about damaging the lives of people, to set up a scenario for the benefit to claim less tax payments by the wealthy industrialist.

We've seen the wildly contrite increase in Military spending, to assure that the Tax Coffer's suffer deficits in and unto other programs, all for the sake to cut services, so the wealthy industrialist does not pay its fair share of taxes.

We saw this promoted by a man who has a history of detesting the paying of taxes, as did his daddy and his grand-daddy..... The Trump's !!!

We see a system that has a old-time mindset of segregationist era character disposition of wanting to destroy anything that tax dollars support which has the capability to benefit the multi-cultural minority population that is within the make up of American society.

We see people cry and whine for less government, because the savagery of the industrial system has convinced segments of the population, that business and industry should not regard the protections of our society, the environment and the managed process of how they utilize natural resources and how they neglect the future of generations yet to come, because they want to ignore, circumvent and wipe away regulatory governing controls. This so, their aim, strip away the tax base, by massive tax give away, that reduce the tax revenues as a means to assure they can weaken the agencies and divisions who establish and manage regulatory governance.

Savagery functions by many collusive acts of devise to feed the greed that is core within the making and existing of savagery.

Many see the title of the thread and go directly into "the blindness of one dimensional spin".... never thinking beyond the drama craft of the headline.

But while the Trump administration has strengthened the US economy’s long-term growth potential in some ways, the other side of the ledger is rather grim. For starters, a wide range of studies – from the work of the late economist David Landes to more recent research by MIT’s Daron Acemoglu and the University of Chicago’s James A Robinson – find that institutions and political culture are the single most important determinants of long-term growth. Recovery from the damage Trump is inflicting on institutions and political culture in the US may take years; if so, the economic costs could be considerable.

Moreover, in accordance with the administration’s disdain for science, the proposed budgets for basic research, including for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, were reduced sharply (fortunately, the US Congress rejected the cuts). And antitrust enforcement, needed to counter excessive monopoly power in many parts of the economy, is essentially dormant. That will exacerbate inequality over the long term; Trump’s coalmines and trade tariffs are at best Band-Aids on a bullet wound.

Last, but not least, many of the regulations that Trump is targeting ought to be strengthened, not eliminated. It is hard to imagine that gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement are helpful for long-run growth, given that the costs of cleaning up pollution later vastly exceed the costs of mitigating it today.

As for financial regulation, the reams of new rules adopted after the 2008 financial crisis have been a dream come true for lawyers. Rather than try to micromanage banking, it would be far better to ensure that shareholders have more “skin in the game”, so that big banks are more inclined to avoid excessive risk. On the other hand, neutering existing legislation without putting anything adequate in its place sets the stage for another financial crisis.

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over the past year the data clearly show that tax cuts increase deficits. This might seem obvious, but with so many people, including the Treasury secretary, arguing otherwise, it is important to make the point again. In 2018 the deficit rose to $779 billion, or 3.8% of GDP—a nearly unprecedented figure for a period of economic expansion and no major wars.

The deficit growth was driven by the fall in revenue to 16.4% of GDP, among the lowest as a share of the economy in 50 years other than during the aftermath of major recessions. At the same time, federal spending fell as a share of GDP. Overall, these chronic deficits could hurt the economy over time by reducing national income through reduced business investment and higher foreign borrowing.

Fourth, the data from the past year confirm that, at least in the short run, corporate tax cuts go to corporations. The corporate tax cut in 2018 was about $125 billion, which helped drive a 12-percentage-point increase in after-tax corporate profit growth even as nominal wage growth continued its slow upward drift. This debunks the claim that tax cuts were translating into immediate bonuses and other forms of rent-sharing with workers. In the longer run the small increase in capital could result in a small increase in wages, but expect nothing commensurate with the cost workers will eventually have to pay for the tax cuts themselves.

People simply don't care to learn the long term impacts. It's the same in the areas where American has lost respect for "maintaining legacy industries', because it has no respect for "system legacy of industrial standards".... the only legacy people seem to concern themselves with is trying to recreate the legacy remake of the 1950's segregationist societal systems and policies, all the white unaware of the grave damages such a system caused upon, to and against the American general population. Yes, this includes damage to poor whites as well, and not just the aimed goal of diminishing the opportunity and equilibrium for women and minorities.

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RealityNow said:

I understand clearly how tax deduction work... the point is... about the "pittance" people get during the year, while the Tax Cuts was of design to avert the wealthy from paying their taxes on extremely high volumes of income. Both during the year, and with a lesser liability at the end of the year... the working people may have gotten a bump in standard deduction amounts, but so did the wealthy retain a mass of their write off's... We don't see a reinvestment by the Industry of the saving during the year, we saw them "buy back stock", and the monies buried offshore did not return !!!

The bigger picture is that' We did not need a tax cut" for the wealthy... certainly not one that is made permanent, while the working got a fixed term tax cut that is slated to go away.
It was an over-all ill designed plan... Bush Tax Cuts had been renewed by Obama.... Our concerns were already existing of the need for the variety of infrastructure programs needed, we already suffered a massive drain by the loss of industry, and the lowered wages of the working, and now ... we are at greater deficit, as indicated by the escalation of debt, the lack of any infrastructure projects being nation wide, education has not received what it needs, instead Betsy Devos has continued to attack educations... There is no nation wide skill training programs and government subsidies to the wealthy industries has no decreased and we still have made no improvements in health care. Now... is any or all of that worth only $2.50 or so a day to the general citizen population. I think not.
people generally during the year worked with the taxes they paid, and many used their "income taxes" to cover the expense that inflation during the year brought to them, I don't think $2.50 or so day, gave them greater benefit during the year, when as I stated above.... the elements of increase that consumed it as well as the losses they experience by services being reduced in commercial business, product quality size and quantity reduced, while the cost of goods and services has seen an increase. Then compound that with the cost increase generated by the "Trade Wars"..... it amounts to a "loss for the average citizen population" in every respect.
Go to the store and take note of the cost increase among the grocery items, and the bump up in cost for services of all sort. None of those things decreased because of a lifetime reduction in taxes to the wealthy industries.

You look at the simple version, that ignores all such elements that impact and affect the everyday working Americans. But, if that is all you want to factor, then if that suits your concept of satisfaction... then you are certainly by free in choice to be of such satisfaction. One should realize such satisfaction comes with an "expense"....

Click to expand...

OMG i said nothing of a tax deduction. I am talking taxes straight taxes of what you owe the federal government.
I didn't ignore anything all taxes work the same.

the only expense is people that constantly spread wrong information and can't understand simple concepts such as tax liability.

What they get on their return doesn't matter.

what they need to be looking at is what they paid in taxes last year compared to this year.

if last year they owed 6k in taxes and this year they owe 4,5k. then their tax liability dropped by 1.5k dollars and they
received a tax cut.

on their return if they over paid the year before 8k and this year (due to the changes in withholding) paid 6k.

sure they get less of a return but they received more in their pay check. their returns don't matter.

j-mac said:

That's how I always tried to structure mine....although this year I got kinda screwed, my own fault, but had to pay more in, first time in over a decade...

Sent from my SM-T587P using Tapatalk

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many people already have too many allowances on their checks
depending on the size of your family a person should only take up to 2 allowances.

this will help mitigate paying at the end of the year.

ludin said:

OMG i said nothing of a tax deduction. I am talking taxes straight taxes of what you owe the federal government.
I didn't ignore anything all taxes work the same.

the only expense is people that constantly spread wrong information and can't understand simple concepts such as tax liability.

What they get on their return doesn't matter.

what they need to be looking at is what they paid in taxes last year compared to this year.

if last year they owed 6k in taxes and this year they owe 4,5k. then their tax liability dropped by 1.5k dollars and they
received a tax cut.

on their return if they over paid the year before 8k and this year (due to the changes in withholding) paid 6k.

sure they get less of a return but they received more in their pay check. their returns don't matter.

Click to expand...

If that's the angle and perspective that suffices.. Then go with that.