[Ghaati]

[quote=beach43ofus;59950645]

Originally Posted by bale002

The 2018 tax law shortened Form 1040, but nothing was simplified ... on the the contrary.

Incorrect.

In 2017, 47 million returns included itemized deductions, and the form/s that went along with itemizing...like mileage logs for company use of a personal car, a portion of homes expenses deducted for home offices, SALT (state & local taxes) deductions, receipts for entertaining clients, & more.

In 2018, only 18 million people bothered itemizing, and provided all this documentation, due to the laws changing.

If you could not reach a certain threshold of itemized deductions, it cost you more to itemize.

I'm not saying the tax code isnt still crazy complicated overall, but Trump did simplify it greatly, especially for affluent taxpayers.

The top 1% still have very complicated returns that most of us could not understand.

I own a company, am a top 2%'er, & for the first time ever, I didn't itemize my expenses in 2018, 19, & won't for 20 either. I'm considering canning my CPA for my personal returns, and using Turbo tax, since it has been simplified so much.

He'll still do my company's return though. That remains complicated.

In order to find out if you had enough to qualify for itemizing, there were NEW forms and NEW calculations you had to do, that you didn't have to fill out or do in 2017. That makes it MORE complicated, not less.

We did our own taxes. We had itemized every year for the past 20 years, but we didn't know whether or not we'd qualify until it was tax time. It took us an extra 20 minutes of forms and calculations to determine that we did NOT qualify to benefit from itemizing.

And at the end of the day, we owed in excess of $2000, whereas in the previous years, we got refunds.

[beach43ofus]

[quote=Ghaati;59953751]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

In order to find out if you had enough to qualify for itemizing, there were NEW forms and NEW calculations you had to do, that you didn't have to fill out or do in 2017. That makes it MORE complicated, not less.

We did our own taxes. We had itemized every year for the past 20 years, but we didn't know whether or not we'd qualify until it was tax time. It took us an extra 20 minutes of forms and calculations to determine that we did NOT qualify to benefit from itemizing.

And at the end of the day, we owed in excess of $2000, whereas in the previous years, we got refunds.

We own our home outright, so no mortgage interest to deduct. Thus, it took us 1 minute to calculate in our heads, that we couldn't reach Trump's higher standard deduction level of $24,800.

37% own their homes free and clear, so for them, this calculation, also took seconds. Without mortgage interest, its very hard to get to $28,500.

Also, SALT cap max deductions of $10,000 also ended itemizing for lots of Americans.

I stand by my claim that overall, for most Americans, Trump's new plan simplified tax filing. Yes, there was a learning curve to process all the changes, so for 2018, it might have taken some added time to ldigest, but once understood, it took us minutes to review our taxes, from the CPA.

Its very unlikely we'll use a CPA, or any tax help for our 2020 personal return.

Our CPA will still do our corporate return...that's still complicated.

[Bondurant]

This is an unintentionally hilarious thread. An interloper lectures Floridians about the virtues of Connecticut taxation and another claims New Jersey has amazing infrastructure (must have missed the horrendous roads in Newark). Laughing so hard I had to pull over.

Thankfully you have a nice buffer. Here in Arizona we share a border with California. They flee the economic policies of their state and then vote for it here. Makes no sense.

Those wanting to pay more taxes can voluntarily give to the Feds or their state. Leave the rest of us alone.

[roadtrip75]

Originally Posted by nep321

I moved down to Florida from Connecticut three years ago and think Florida can learn a thing or two from northeastern state policies and taxation.

In the meantime, you should enjoy their superior policies in person.

[blueherons]

Originally Posted by nep321

Why not? It only makes perfect sense.

No.

Florida gets hundreds of millions of tourists that pay sales tax. They are the reason we don't pay state taxes.

Please go back north where you are from and tax yourself to death up there.

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by blueherons

No.

Florida gets hundreds of millions of tourists that pay sales tax. They are the reason we don't pay state taxes.

Please go back north where you are from and tax yourself to death up there.

Consider the context of the OP in creating this thread.

It was created after many Florida companies closed due to lack of business - during a pandemic that forced towns to close shop and mandate curfews and order beaches closed and mandate social distancing. Disney World CLOSED - for a period of time. And all the hotels around Disney had cancellations, and no new business to replace those cancelled reservations.

Tourism was tanking, in Florida, at the time the OP started this thread.

The OP was musing - "well gee - tourism is taking a huge dive, and this state relies on tourism revenue for pretty much everything. I wonder if there's an alternative to tourism revenue, that they might want to consider - in case this situation lasts longer, or gets worse."

And instead of people participating in this contemplation, they all dogpiled on the OP for daring to trash their beloved zero income tax.

I even posted a couple of times asking people who were being hostile without contributing anything, to contribute what THEY think would be a decent alternative to tourism, if the state had to some day look to other means of revenue.

And I got dogpiled on as well.

[sandeshpawar31]

florida has indivudal s

[cw30000]

I think OP just wants to bring the awesome tax policy he hated from the NE to FL.

In the tristates: NY, NJ and CT, all have high individual tax
, high corporate tax, and high property tax.

He voted for all of those and now he hated it and left the utopia. Now he want to turn FL to the same utopia he left.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by cw30000

I think OP just wants to bring the awesome tax policy he hated from the NE to FL.

In the tristates: NY, NJ and CT, all have high individual tax
, high corporate tax, and high property tax.

He voted for all of those and now he hated it and left the utopia. Now he want to turn FL to the same utopia he left.

Anyone who makes their income from the taxpayers, tends to like high taxes. I means a raise and more benefits for them, while everyone else suffers.

[Ghaati]

Maybe it's something in the water here that degrades brain cells.

But here's a little life lesson for y'all:

"maybe they can learn a lesson from Connecticut" doesn't equate with "they need to create the same tax structure that people are running from in Connecticut."

Maybe the lesson learned isn't to tax people SO much, and SO high, that people flee. Maybe, it's that there should be SOME significant revenue source that doesn't rely exclusively on tourism, just in case tourism takes a hit from things like a pandemic - or a hurricane.