I did my taxes today. I went to the same accountant I went to last year, and he had a copy of my tax documents for last year. Except for some modest COLA adjustments to my pension income, there was nothing substantially different between my 2018 and 2017 taxes except that this is under the new Republican tax law.

Although my total income increased slightly this year, due to the COLAs, my taxable income for this year was 88% of what it was for the previous year. That is, 2018 income/2017 income = 0.88. (OK, so maybe they calculate it differently now, I can understand that).

However, nothing else has changed, we still take the standard exemption, and we have no deductions or other tax dodges. This is essentially the same tax return I submitted for TY2017, only the law has changed. My withholding has not changed. My interest from my bank accounts and IRAs has not changed, and my mandatory withdrawals from my IRAs are the same.

However, my taxes have gone up! By a whopping 32%. (2018 tax/2017 tax = 1.32). In absolute figures, it doesn’t amount to much, but relatively speaking, I am getting a tax increase. A bigly one.

Apparently, my accountant has had other customers question him about this, because he went over the figures carefully with me, comparing last year’s numbers with this year’s. A lot of low income people are getting pounded by the new tax law. Not that I’m surprised. In Republican America, if you don’t itemize, you ain’t shit.

Make America Great Again.