Did Trump's Tax Plan Help or Hurt You?

When the Trump tax cuts were announced in December of 2017, I dealt with a panic from many of my clients that I had never experienced before in my career. “What should we do?” “Am I going to pay more?” “Does this affect the upcoming tax season?” The last week of the year went from what is usually a very laid-back week and turned into one of our busier weeks of the year. While running tax projections to see which clients needed to make immediate moves (such as pre-paying real estate taxes), the most common question I received that week, and have received since then, was “Will I save on my taxes?”

Whether taxpayers will save, and to what degree they will save, is not a simple yes or no answer. As much as the new tax plan promised to simplify the tax code (which it did in certain cases), it muddied the water in other areas, especially if you own a business. What I did find over the last six months is that there are some generalizations that can be used as a guide.

Do you have dependents under the age of 17? You’re probably saving money.

Did you previously take the standard deduction? You’re probably saving money.

Did you pay tens of thousands of dollars in real estate taxes, as well as state taxes to California, which is now capped at $10,000 per year? You may owe more money.

There is no one size fits all answer to whether the Trump tax plan helped everyone, but over the next few weeks, as I break down a few different scenarios, you can compare your situation to the ones I use as examples to get a better feeling as to whether you will save or not.