Because my autism has limits I'll ask if anyone else knows: DSP keeps whining about "the Republican tax changes" as though they're going to harm him. As far as I can tell in his situation there are no changes that would harm him and two that would benefit him (a larger automatic taxable income reduction for everyone who doesn't itemize and a separate taxable income reduction for pass-through businesses and sole proprietors.) Does anyone know what changes could allegedly harm him and cause him to owe more in taxes in 2018 forward?
Sounds like a line his new tax attorney fed him to squeeze more money out of him tbh. "Yeah normally we'd only charge X for this, but because of these NEW REPUBLICAN TAX CODES, you know, it's all really uncertain so we'll have to charge you extra, I'm sure a college educated guy like you understands..." and of course Phil doesn't question it at all because he's every salesman's dream.
My assumption, thinking back to comments he has made, is that DSP is freaking out about the removal of the $4,150 personal exemption, which is stupid. For those unfamiliar you used to me able to itemize deductions (meaning you could use the $6,500 standard deduction or itemize instead if itemizing saved you money) AND use the personal exemption. Starting in 2018 you cannot. You have to choose between a significantly higher standard deduction and itemizing. Meaning if you could previously write off $8,000 by itemizing you got to reduce your taxable income by $12,151 and now you can only reduce your taxable income by $12,000 instead. Some people really got their knickers in a knot about that, but it doesn't appear to be very impactful as it only affects people with in a pretty specific situation ($8,000 or so in itemized deductions and up.)
