Those of us on the Left fortunate enough to earn higher incomes received a tax cut we never wanted, passed by Republicans in late 2016. In a better world, Hillary Clinton would have been President. Instead, we got this horrific Republican regime in Washington, and yet we are going to receive a much bigger refund when we file taxes this year. I see what we do with this windfall as a moral question.
Don’t get me wrong, more money is always helpful. In my own household we have two children getting married this year, and after repeated leaks we need to repipe our house. But in a better world, we’d have more Democrats in office and me and my wife would still figure out away to pay these bills. I am not trying to guilt anyone — if money is tight, do what it takes for yourself and your family. But for those of us near or within the top 1%, I ask you to at least think about your values before you spend this windfall.
And here’s a simple way to calculate the windfall. If you use TurboTax, simply take the info on income, deductions, etc. that you put into last year’s tax returns and create a test case return for the 2018 . The IRS has not yet finalized all the rules, so the TurboTax calculations are not yet finalized, but I put my data in and the initial estimate is that our tax bill is $13,200 lower. If that number holds, that’s $1100 in political donations a month — to ActBlue, specific candidates, etc.
I just thought of this last night and did the calculations; I want to put this out here for feedback right-away, but will follow up when the calculations are finalized