Got my new paycheck today with new withholding.

[fescuerescue]

Last edited Thu Feb 1, 2018, 03:02 PM - Edit history (1)

My withholding went to $399.26 (weekly) from $466.50 . (paid weekly)

What a pittance. I get a whole $67, while billionaires get millions.

Thanks for the crumbs!

[Loki Liesmith]

1. Check that they aren't underwitholding

Last edited Thu Feb 1, 2018, 02:04 PM - Edit history (2)

Some trickery going on.

[yallerdawg]

5. They didn't give you a new W-4?

This new amount reducing your withholding just showed up?

[Dragonfly64]

17. You don't have to fill out a new W-4

because your withholding hasn't changed -- the tax rate tables have.

[yallerdawg]

20. What if the employee wants to have more withheld?

And how sure should the employee be that enough is being withheld so there is no tax due next year?

Or the tax return remains as anticipated?

[leftynyc]

21. Your payroll department

should be able to have all that for you.

[B2G]

22. Because the tax rate goes down across the board.

Not just on your paycheck but when you file your returns.

It's the same reduction.

[marylandblue]

29. You need to figure that out yourself

I read somewhere they deliberately reduced the witholding amount too much, so you get more now and pay later. So you need to estimate your tax now and if they aren't witholding enough, fill out a new w-4 including additional witholding. Most people won't bother with this but the bill won't be due until after the election. What a crock!

[B2G]

31. That's not the way this works.

Withholding is based strictly on the tax tables. The same one used to calculate your taxes.

It's not padded. You can only effect the amount withheld based on the deductions stated in your W4.

[marylandblue]

40. There's a line on the w-4 for "additional witholding"

If, for whatever reason you want them to withold more than your deductions allow.

[B2G]

42. I know that.

But withholding amounts are not 'padded' by the government to trick you into getting a bigger pay check and paying more when you file, which is what you stated.

That is completely within your control with your W4 deductions.

[marylandblue]

43. I read that they padded it somehow this time

And it may be true in my case. I got a huge bump in my take home pay, I was really surprised because it should not have been that much. Now I need go figure out if it's right or not.

[yallerdawg]

49. They cut deductions on the back end, too.

What I heard was it will come clear when the 2018 tax books come out. In 2019.

[DeminPennswoods]

72. The personal deductions are gone

You have to make sure to calculate your correct withholding if you were claiming more or fewer personal exemptions to cover for things like mortgage payments, investment income, etc. If you don't, you are either going to get a big refund or owe a lot and possibly have to pay a penalty on top as well.

[fescuerescue]

74. No. The new withholding just appeared.

[aidbo]

91. Also IRS has not yet released the 2018 w-4 form.

Just a draft version.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/fw4p--dft.pdf

[yallerdawg]

92. "$XXXXX.XX"

I knew algebra would come in handy one day!

[guillaumeb]

2. But if you invest that $67 per week for 12,000 years,

you will be a multimillionaire too.

[lapfog_1]

6. 574 years

we should be accurate with math.

Multi = >1

2,000,000 / 67 = 29,851 paychecks.

Assuming 52 weekly paychecks a year... 574 years.

[guillaumeb]

9. I actually used the number 12,000 in an attempt at humor.

And, this tax cut is temporary.

[davekriss]

44. I think lapfog was using humor, too

See, even if we calculate it precisely, this tax cut is absurd. It actually represents class theft, because to pay for the tax cuts for giant corporations, the owners of these corporations, the 0.1%, many other services will be cut or reduced. Including social security and medicare.

(When those special treasury bonds begin to be redeemed -- you know, the surplus we paid for starting 1983 -- that comes out of general revenue. Thus the coming tsunami of attacks on all things that benefit people other than the top 1%, including social security.)

[lapfog_1]

95. Bingo+

[lapfog_1]

55. yes I know.

but 574 years is both accurate AND has the value of being funny and sad at the same time.

[imanamerican63]

3. That my very point!

We see pennies added & all the while the record million dollars profits!

[NCTraveler]

4. Those aren't crumbs.

That's real money. A pretty big deal. Calling it crumbs is a pretty poor strategy.

I understand a little better considering your WITHHOLDING alone was $466.50/week. I assume you mean Federal Withholding. Wow. Solid pay.

[octoberlib]

13. Wait until they cut SS, Medicare and

Medicaid to pay for it. Also in 2027 people who make less than 200,000 a year will see their taxes go up. This’ll be fixed by then , though.

[NCTraveler]

15. That's the argument.

Along with the new CBO suggestion that the debt ceiling be increased sooner rather than later.

[MichMary]

56. Woe to the party that raises taxes

Just sayin'.

[lapfog_1]

23. works out to $3,474 a year

not crumbs to anyone... but the OP is also correct... not life-changing either.

I would be very careful with that $67 a week as I suspect the withholding calculation is possibly inaccurate and I would hate to owe money in April 2019.

The other things to think about is what will increase as a result of this tax cut. For example, if you live in one of the states with significant state and local taxes and you are used to deducting those taxes on your federal return, you might not even be getting any sort of tax break.


I'm going to guess but if my math isn't way off the OP makes around $80,000 a year. $3,474 is a 4% tax break. Certainly not millions, but not chump change.

Before we all get excited about that 3 or 4 percent tax break, remember what we are losing as a society ( education environment infrastructure social services etc )

Also remember that the government is having to BORROW more money ( yet to be determined how much but the LOW end is $1.5T ) just to fund the things they haven't cut AND they have more spending bills coming to increase military spending. That much borrowing will impact the cost of money for all of us, even those who don't borrow money because we buy things and the companies who make those things DO borrow money so the increased cost of money will factor into the prices we pay.

Economic modeling is very difficult. Monkeying around with tax policy and trade policy and we will see all kinds of unintended consequences.

[LeftInTX]

24. If the OP is earning about $15/hour it sure is!

It means an increase of about 14%.

However, the OP is not specific enough.

A paycheck of $466 is equivalent to about $15/hour

The OP is too vague.

[mindem]

32. He said his

"withholding" was $466. If his withholding is that much he is making a pretty decent income.

[LeftInTX]

38. He said his withholding went from $399 to $466

If this is the case, his withholding increased.

Then, he says his paycheck increased by $67.

The OP...is too, too vague

[lapfog_1]

59. Not at all

Federal withholding went from $466 to $399 for a $67 a week increase in net pay.

Assuming a few standard deductions, etc... one can extrapolate ( and I said it was a guess ) to an annual salary of $80K ( assuming around a 30 percent marginal rate ). To really know we would have to know what he or she filed on the W-2.

[WillowTree]

64. No, you are wrong.

If the withholding was increased, then the takehome would be less than before, not more.

[lapfog_1]

68. I said the federal withholding went from $466

to $399... that is a DECREASE in withholding, not an increase.

That decrease resulted in a net pay increase of $67 a week... or $3484 a year.

[NCTraveler]

25. Another solid argument.

It's what we have to do. People lining up to call this amount of money "crumbs" isn't a winning proposition.

These crumbs will be disappearing over the years(if the crumbs aren't a part of something else as you have outlined), as the higher end cuts stay, and we will be straddled with the burden in the end anyway.

I really think the CBO statement is also an important tool for us.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53514

This can be put into a soundbite.

[sarah FAILIN]

27. I got 15 bucks every 2 weeks. 360/year. That is crumbs

I am considered "salary" so no overtime for me but only make in the 40 k area. Another 30 bucks a month is not worth selling out my kids future.

[B2G]

33. Again, check your stub in 2 weeks.

The new tables go into effect today, not 2 weeks ago.

[sarah FAILIN]

37. No, my company implemented them early

Also, I checked it by the dollars held back as tax from November and December till now. Since my salary is always the same, it's easy to see the difference.

[B2G]

39. How did they do that? nt

[sarah FAILIN]

51. They sent an email to us

It said they were getting it implemented before the deadline and that this was our first check with it. I 'm sure they just got the numbers and ran with it. The deadline is a deadline, not a starting point from what I understood.
I got my first check day before yesterday so it doesn't seem like a big deal.

[stopwastingmymoney]

57. Quickbooks pushed the tables out about Jan 20

I ran a payroll on the 25th with new tables and was able to compare a few.

The 1200 paycheck had 37 less in wh and the 2600 check had 75 less

That said, wh tables are considerably simpler than your tax return and you may end up owing at tax time.

This happened with the 2003 tax cut

[Dem_4_Life]

58. Yep my company sent out a note

That the new tax tables became effective on Jan. 11, 2018 so the difference that you will see on your next paycheck will also include the adjustment to the prior payroll dated Jan. 19.

My favorite part of the note also said:
Your Payroll and Human Resources partners cannot offer any tax advice but in the weeks ahead, the IRS will be providing more information to better understand and review the changes. You can visit their website throughout the year for helpful information and to access the new withholding tax calculator to help you determine what your withholding should be. They plan to release this by the end of February. The IRS website is www.irs.gov.

Either way mine went up by about $20.

[lapfog_1]

62. And your story is the more common story

Or as someone stated during the tax debate... about enough to buy a Starbucks once a week.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

30. With the rate that prices on, well, everything, continues to go up

that money will evaporate quicker than you might think.

[NCTraveler]

41. Completely dependent on other factors.

Even under you thoughts it isn't crumbs.

"that money will evaporate quicker than you might think."

I made no argument to it's staying power. Simply pointed out that thousands a year is not chump change and that promoting it as such is a flawed argument.

I do think inflation is about to rise at a quicker rate. There are serious concerns over it right now. That alone is one of the reasons the market was negatively impacted earlier this week.

http://www.todayonline.com/world/fed-leaves-rates-unchanged-sees-inflation-firming

[lapfog_1]

65. Especially if the unintended consequence of this tax break

is to push the inflation rate up even a point or two. And I expect that it will.

Could be a lot worse... suppose China decides that holding onto all that debt they hold in the form of US Tbills is simply not worth it anymore and they decide to dump it ( it wouldn't serve them to do that as they would lose 100s of billions ) HOWEVER as an "act of war" against the idiot in the White House, they could decide to lose the money. That would put us into a depression worse than the 1930s.

[WillowTree]

47. I think they meant that their *takehome* went from $399.26 to $466.50.

Think about it. If the withholding was increased by that amount, the paycheck would actually be $67 less than it was before which doesn't make any sense. I think it was just a slip.

[NCTraveler]

53. You are correct.

I should have paid enough attention to recognize that. It actually makes the thousands even more significant on a personal level than I had originally thought. Not that we/they won't be paying for it later. We all will be.

Thanks for pointing out the detail.

[lapfog_1]

70. I did not read it that way...

"My withholding went from to $399.26 (weekly) from $466.50 . (paid weekly)"

so there is the "typo" in this line... "from to".

I read it as "My withholding went TO $399.26 (weekly) FROM $466.50 . (paid weekly)"

Deleted the "to" and added empahsis.

[fescuerescue]

76. You are correct

And I edited out the extra "to" which confused everyone.

For privacy, I did not include take home pay, nor gross. Just how the Federal deduction changed.

[DeminPennswoods]

75. OP's withholding went down

Old: 466
New: 399
Net: +67

[sinkingfeeling]

60. I get to pay $1000 a year more on my FIXED income of Social Security and

pension with the elimination of personal deduction and caps on local/property taxes.

[NCTraveler]

63. Another solid argument.

This tax law is and will be devastating. For all of us.

I would never refer to the additional thousand you have to pay as "crumbs". Yet over three times that much is being referenced as just that. This is real money and I'm sorry we are going to have to go through it together. We will keep fighting to change it.

[DeminPennswoods]

78. The loss of personal exemption is offset by an increase in

standard deduction. It's a net gain of about $2000. Unless your property taxes are over $10,000/yr, you can still deduct 100% of them if you itemize.

[sinkingfeeling]

80. As a single person, why would I want to take a standard deduction of $12,000

when my itemized deductions exceed $18,000? So I lost the $4050 personal exemption and my state/local taxes are capped to $10,000.

[DeminPennswoods]

82. In your case, you wouldn't

Just explaining what the new rules are for those who don't know.

[Freethinker65]

77. The crumbs comment comes from who ends up getting the cookie!

Yes, you will see some $ in your paycheck (decrease in tax withholding) if everything else from the last year stays the same (no increase in health insurance buy in premiums, etc.).

However, the "crumbs" comment comes from who gets the major share of the tax cut (or the cookie). And that would be the wealthiest that will be saving tens of thousands of dollars or more. That $$$ paid for a lot of social services, healthcare subsidies, infrastructure, military and security, environmental protection, public education, etc. that we all rely on. It will dramatically put a hole in the federal budget which will either lead to increased borrowing and spending (National debt which we all end up paying for) or more cuts in programs (especially social programs like social security, Medicare, and Medicaid).

When talking about "crumbs" please do not forget to talk about the "cookie".


There was a great cartoon about this a few years ago.

[Iliyah]

7. AND

people will pay more taxes come 2019 taxes, except for the 1-2%ers and corporations.

[WillowTree]

54. How do you figure?

[Stuart G]

8. k and r..nt

[karynnj]

10. If the withholding went from $399.26 to $466.50, your paycheck would go DOWN by $67 nt

[fescuerescue]

71. I edited for clarity.

The new withholding is the smaller number which has the effect of increasing take home by $67

[karynnj]

79. Makes sense :)

[B2G]

11. Is that with the new tables or old?

My understanding is they are effective today, but that would have been for time worked in January before the new tables went into effect.

[octoberlib]

14. Thank you.

[gopiscrap]

12. lucky you, we get 64.82 extra per month

but deduct an extra 41.00 in additional health insurance premiums and an additional 9.08 in condo real estate tax per month and an extra 2.00 per month in condo insurance and an extra 7.50 in condo fees per month...so I made a whopping $5.32 per month

[MichMary]

66. Well,

your condo taxes, insurance, fees, and health insurance would have gone up anyway, so you are still $64.82 ahead.

Don't understand why people are so upset about getting more of their own $$$ back. I cringed when I heard Speaker Pelosi refer to bonuses and bigger paychecks as "crumbs."

[Skittles]

85. you don't understand?

Last edited Thu Feb 1, 2018, 09:43 PM - Edit history (2)

it's going to drive up debt and give repukes ammunition to destroy Social Security and Medicare

[Windy City Charlie]

16. Can't help but think

That all of this is some sort of advanced payment on future taxes. Can't help but think this will all be coming back out of our pockets and thensome at some point in the future.

[TeamPooka]

18. Enjoy it while it last. Its temporary for you

Enjoy it while it last. It’s temporary for youBut permanent for corporations

[MichMary]

67. Which party will

raise taxes on individuals?? Whichever one does, loses BIG TIME in the following election.

[TeamPooka]

83. "Tax the rich" is a winning motto. They just got huge cuts.

[stevenelijah]

19. Actually...

If you could get a 15% return on that money you will have 1 million dollars in about 26 years...

[LexVegas]

26. $268 a month is crumbs to you? Must be nice.

[obamanut2012]

45. ikr

[unblock]

28. that's a 15% reduction in withholding. i rather doubt most people's tax bill will go down that much

i recommend setting some of it aside for next april 15....

[fescuerescue]

73. That's actually a really good point.

If my liability doesn't go down by 15%. I'm going to be in deep doo doo at the end of the year.

[sarah FAILIN]

34. I got 15 bucks every 2 weeks. 360/year. That is crumbs

The whole thing is a joke.

[Historic NY]

35. new tables

[link:https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/n1036.pdf|]

[parkerMcDavis]

36. We should be careful, there are many examples of Nancy Pelosi and others

in the Democratic party absolutely praising Obama's $40 payroll tax cut during his first term. The right is putting this out front and center in the media.

[Kaleva]

46. I would love to get an extra $67 a week!

That's $268 extra month. Would be nice to add that to my $1158 a month I get for SSDI.

It's funny what you very well off people here think of as crumbs.

[MacKasey]

48. Tax rate always goes down January 1st

Everyone got more money in their paychecks because the tax rate drops back to 10% January 1st, not because of the tax cuts unless you make $10,000 in a weak

When you hit $10,000 is when you will see a differ of 3%, tax is going down from 15% to 12%. If you do not make more then $38,000 that is all the tax break you will see

That's the way I understand it

[demigoddess]

50. I remember in the 80s when Reagan gave the military a pay raise

of 25%, they eliminated all or most of the allowances, like for extra expensive housing areas and flight pay etc. The net result was a 6 dollar pay raise. Hallelujah! NOT! The taxable base pay rose but actual take home pay didn't change. The end result was that for some people (until the republicans discovered their mistake) the retirement pay went way up for some people. HA HA! I guess they might have learned from their mistake, but they are doing the same thing again.

[Dreamer Tatum]

52. This whole "crumbs" narrative is dangerous

It's not "crumbs." It's real money. There are probably several DUers who had gofundme's who would have been delighted with a little extra money in their checks.

[Luciferous]

61. That's not great but better than nothing. It looks like we'll get an extra $60 a month

after we factor in the increase in our insurance.

[Autumn]

69. To the run of the mill Fox news idiot $67.00 is a lot and they are happy the pukes are looking out

for them and giving them their money back that the government has been stealing from them. And Fox and the pukes will never mention what that paltry 67 dollars is costing them and the country. The people I see that are so happy on FB have no clue that this is temporary and harming SS while the money the wealthy and corporations get are permanent.

[burnbaby]

81. question

you get an extra $134 a month. would you rather get $134 or owe $134 a month? if you would rather owe than i suggest you send $134 a month to your favorite charity

[alarimer]

84. And next year, you will owe more in taxes.

This "windfall" is a small bribe for the election. But next year, when it no longer matters, people will owe.

I'm going to have more withheld from my check, just in case.

[Skittles]

86. people are so easily fooled

[titaniumsalute]

87. So basically $250 per month

While that isn't too bad I guess I need to ask how you file? Did you also lose deductions when you file for 2018?

[fescuerescue]

88. MFJ

I have no idea what 2018 will look like

[Gothmog]

89. Check the math

My son is an associate at a major firm and the new withholding tables would have resulted in him owing taxes at the end of the year.

[fescuerescue]

93. That wouldn't surprise me at all.

I'm just referring to the withholding on my own check.

When I get some time, I'm going to build a model that shows what my year end tax will looking like after incorporating all the new changes and rates. Unfortunately, Ive yet to find an unbiased accurate model (the current ones ive seen, over simplify or omit items to push their particular narrative).

[Kirk Lover]

90. Nope sorry it's crumbs compared to what taxes are getting cut where and for whom. nt

[moondust]

94. Gas is up 15% in 45 days.

Food prices are also up quite a bit.

And health insurance.

And...