General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm a CPA with a small tax practice [View all]Ms. Toad
(34,069 posts)As you know, as a CPA, refunds are just a way of settling up the bill at the end of the year. I can engineer a very large refund or balance due by adjusting the withholdings.
One of the things the tax bill did, I'm pretty sure, was disproportionately reduce the withholdings in order to put more money in people's paycheck during the year.
I have yet to see an article discussing change in taxes owed from year to year - only changes in refunds which (as you know) are just a numbers manipulation matter - want a bigger refund? Withhold more. Want a smaller refund? Withhold less. The change here is that it was the government changing the withholding - and I certainly didn't check to see if the change was more (or less) likely to cover the taxes I owed.
As a former enrolled agent - it does sound as if it will be a rough year (any year is rough when people discover they have a balance due). But my bigger question still is whether the balance due is really a bigger tax bill, or just more pocket change during the year that means you (generically) didn't pay enough during the year to cover the bill.