“Nothing is certain but death and taxes” said the good Doctor Benjamin Franklin. That has certainly been the case today.
One of our dogs, Lucy, has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. She was a wonderful dog. Originally owned by my daughter’s boyfriend, but when they broke up he couldn’t afford to keep her, so we took her. She was in bad shape when we got her, very neglected (I do not judge; he lived with his grandmother and they had fallen on hard times — I helped them as much as I could and was glad to take her.) But, a few trips to the vet and groomers, some TLC and a better diet, and she responded well. She was 12 when we got her, and died her 2 days after her 17th birthday. I hope her 5 years were as good for her as they were for us. I will always remember her rolling around in the grass, or barking at Harley dog to slow down on our walks. She was the queen dog, and Harley knew his place :) I am grateful that he seems to be taking it well.
Meanwhile, I have joined the crowd bending over and grabbing my ankles as Trumpey’s grand tax cut turns out to be more of a screwing than a happy ending. And I am a CPA! I knew the withholding tables were too low, and had kicked in extra. But, I didn’t realize how badly the state-local tax limitation was going to hit, and I’ll be coughing up about $3K on April 15. Same goes for my in-laws as well — just got off the phone to tell my brother-in-law he’s going to owe about $2K. I had warned him as well about the withholding tables — his AGI is about $60K and they only ever withheld $600 bucks! He chose to ride it out and pay later, but still, it’s a hard pill for them to swallow.
I gotta say — I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t cause a hit to GDP in Q2. I’ve seen the stories on the 9% lower refunds / 16% not getting a refund that they got last year. I think this will hit cell phone sales, spring clothing sales, and, sadly, I think a lot of people are going to re-think at least some of their charitable giving once they see that it no longer gives them a tax deduction. The replacement of personal exemptions with a higher standard deduction does a lot of people no favors.
Anyway, best wishes to all in this winter of our discontent, and may spring and its blessings of renewal be not far off.