# My MASSIVE tax savings! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 27, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682 "2018-02-27T18:08:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/101 "2019-02-07T21:30:12Z")
Also, I can’t help but notice almost all of those tweets have disappeared from those peoples’ feeds. I went to each of them to ask “What did you think was going to happen?” but the tweets were gone. Could it be they were _immediately_ told by EVERYONE that they’re an idiot? ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/102 "2019-02-07T21:33:57Z")
Or they were Russian bots. I wish this pattern of “news” story would go away, 10 tweets from random whoevers can be weaponized as propaganda way too easily. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/103 "2019-02-07T21:36:05Z")
I would have hoped, after the whole Covington Catholic black eye, that people would be a bit more circumspect about breathlessly reporting what a handful of people on Twitter had to say about any particular topic, but I can see that I’m going to be disappointed in that regard. ETA: what steronz said ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/104 "2019-02-07T21:42:43Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I would have hoped, after the whole Covington Catholic black eye, that people would be a bit more circumspect about breathlessly reporting what a handful of people on Twitter had to say about any particular topic, but I can see that I’m going to be disappointed in that regard. > > ETA: what steronz said Even with the assumption that you have chosen to make that CC was a black eye, this was a completely different situation, where people were reporting their own experiences. How you could even possibly connect that to a situation where someone was reporting on other people’s actions and experiences, I have no idea. And yeah, if I made a tweet that made it to a news article, I’d probably take it down, even if I was proud of it in every way. These were people admitting to having mad e a mistake, and having that broadcast to the world may be embarrassing. Given the nature of twitter, it also means that their twit feeds got filled up rather quickly with a combination of “I told you so’s” from democrats, and “You are a liar” from republicans. That the tweets have been taken down does not indicate what you seem to be implying. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/105 "2019-02-07T21:45:29Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > … That the tweets have been taken down does not indicate what you seem to be implying. I’m not the one implying anything about the tweets being taken down. You might have confused me with **DCnDC** ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/106 "2019-02-07T21:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Wait til you file your taxes. Middle class just lost half their return. Lowest refund I have ever had and I am 50yrs old. No wall and now this tax reform sucks too!! Starting to doubt Trump. I voted for him and trusted him too. Congress made a fatal political mistake in lowering withholding. They should have ordered the IRS to keep withholding the same. All the typical taxpayer cares about is what TurboTax tells them their “return” is and not all those details about how much they paid in during the year and how much their tax was. (Of course, what they care about is their “refund” but they call it their “return.”) We can’t tell from any of these tweets whether the taxpayers actually paid more or less tax, but if their “return” went down (or G-d forbid they had to pay at the end of the year), then the hell with how much more or less they had taken out of each paycheck, they have been deceived and are hopping mad! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/107 "2019-02-07T21:59:47Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I just checked my personal situation. On my base salary, the federal income tax withholding dropped $65.10 per paycheck (24 pay periods per year). Presumably it’s reduced by a similar amount on pay periods where I get a bonus, but it’s harder to do an apples-to-apples comparison there. > > Bottom line, **HD** is saving $130.20+/month thanks to Trump and the Republicans. The withholding doesn’t tell the true story. The true story comes when you file and you know what the impact was. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/108 "2019-02-07T22:00:20Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > As far as the $5000 return guy, well, if he has been working at the same place, making about the same money, and now his return is different than it was before, that doesn’t mean that he withheld less, as the withholding tables were changed, and it does not seem as though they were changed in a way that kept people about where they were. It does seem as though they gave too little withholding in many cases. Changing the tables causes people to withhold more or less. 😕 A lot of people pay more attention to the check in ~April than they do to their take-home pay. The number often is just bigger. Hell I know someone who didn’t even notice a $4k raise one year. Boss never said anything and it was only like $100 per paycheck after withholdings. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/109 "2019-02-07T22:05:22Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’m not the one implying anything about the tweets being taken down. You might have confused me with **DCnDC** Oh, I apologize, while you did not quote DCnDC, I took your post as a reply to him. I thought that you were implying that the tweets being taken down was somehow similar to the confusion and misreporting involved in the CC case that you chose to mention. But, as you are not implying anything about the tweets being taken down, then why did you post anything at all about the tweets being related to the CC situation? Was I correct in that you seem to think that this is some sort of “fake news” event? If not, then what is your point? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/110 "2019-02-07T22:14:28Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Changing the tables causes people to withhold more or less. 😕 I don’t know if that is a question, a statement, and whether it is sarcastic or not, and it is close enough to half right that I don’t even know for sure if you are trying to correct me, if you need to be corrected, or if you are agreeing with me. Changing the tables causes the employer to withhold more or less. If the employee doesn’t change anything on their w-4, but the withholding table changes, then that is not the employee changing their withholding, even thought he amount withheld from their check changes. Are we in agreement with this? > [@](#): > > A lot of people pay more attention to the check in ~April than they do to their take-home pay. The number often is just bigger. Hell I know someone who didn’t even notice a $4k raise one year. Boss never said anything and it was only like $100 per paycheck after withholdings. Yep, and some people use it as a savings plan. As I’ve been the hiring manager at many jobs over the last couple decades, and I do all the HR for my employees now, I assist in filling out the new hire paperwork. I have had many employees take 0 on their exemptions so that they get a bigger return. I say, “You know, that just means that the government has your money, and is keeping it tax free until you file?” Some disagree, and seem to think that they actually get more money overall if they claim 0, but others understand this, and simply want that big check, as it is the only method of savings they have (and they use that method of “savings” to blow on some big unnecessary purchase.) ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/111 "2019-02-07T22:16:04Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Oh, I apologize, while you did not quote DCnDC, I took your post as a reply to him. I thought that you were implying that the tweets being taken down was somehow similar to the confusion and misreporting involved in the CC case that you chose to mention. > > But, as you are not implying anything about the tweets being taken down, then why did you post anything at all about the tweets being related to the CC situation? > > Was I correct in that you seem to think that this is some sort of “fake news” event? If not, then what is your point? Apology accepted. My point was that I find news articles about what someone on Twitter said to be annoying and stupid. People on Twitter are often wrong, which makes the aforementioned news articles doubly bad. After the CC thing, there was a bit of (apparently fake) soul-searching by the media along the lines of “maybe we shouldn’t just report whatever some randos on Twitter say as if it were fact”, but that seems not to have stuck. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/112 "2019-02-07T22:25:57Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Apology accepted. My point was that I find news articles about what someone on Twitter said to be annoying and stupid. People on Twitter are often wrong, which makes the aforementioned news articles doubly bad. After the CC thing, there was a bit of (apparently fake) soul-searching by the media along the lines of “maybe we shouldn’t just report whatever some randos on Twitter say as if it were fact”, but that seems not to have stuck. But, this was self reporting. The CC was someone who saw a situation, and reported their feelings on it, and it took off from there. These _could be_ liars or trolls, but outside of that, they are not reporting on what they are seeing someone else do, and making assumptions about that, but are reporting their own, personal experiences. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/113 "2019-02-07T23:12:59Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But, this was self reporting. The CC was someone who saw a situation, and reported their feelings on it, and it took off from there. > > These _could be_ liars or trolls, but outside of that, they are not reporting on what they are seeing someone else do, and making assumptions about that, but are reporting their own, personal experiences. I’m not accusing them of being trolls. They might be completely sincere. Presumably the person that thought the CC kid deserved to be punched in the face was sincere too. That’s not the point. My point was that some random Twitter opinions is a stupid basis for a news article, but that’s what “journalism” has sunk to in 21st century America. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/114 "2019-02-07T23:28:29Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’m not accusing them of being trolls. They might be completely sincere. Presumably the person that thought the CC kid deserved to be punched in the face was sincere too. That’s not the point. My point was that some random Twitter opinions is a stupid basis for a news article, but that’s what “journalism” has sunk to in 21st century America. Alternet is news? News to me. 😉 The point of news is to tell you what is going on in the world, and bring your attention to things that that medi outlet thinks are important. No, a massive in depth expose article would be silly based on some tweets. But, seeing some tweets, and bringing them to the public’s attention, I don’t see what is wrong with that. Point is is that CC was an outside observer saying what she thought she saw, and what she thought was going on, whether sincere or not. These are people relaying their personal experiences, assuming that they are not lying, I put much greater weight on that than people relaying their observations of an event they are not a part of. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/115 "2019-02-07T23:40:02Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Changing the tables causes the employer to withhold more or less. If the employee doesn’t change anything on their w-4, but the withholding table changes, then that is not the employee changing their withholding, even thought he amount withheld from their check changes. Doesn’t matter who initiated the change; if more or less goes to the IRS, then I withheld more or less. I’m the one responsible for keeping up to speed on that amount and adjusting it or making supplemental quarterly payments as needed. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2019, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682/116 "2019-02-08T00:07:39Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But, seeing some tweets, and bringing them to the public’s attention, I don’t see what is wrong with that. Right now the prevailing political debates in this country are driven by a new breed of uninformed conservative whose only guiding principal is that anything that pisses off the libs is a good thing. These people think that every college student is a nonbinary genderqueer socialist majoring in women’s studies and hell bent on brainwashing your children, they think that black people are the _real_ racists and that white people are victims of widespread reverse racism, that liberals want to take their guns and their tax dollars and everything else and give it away. _All_ of these idiotic beliefs are reinforced on a daily basis by garbage “news” put out on the Daily Wire or Turning Point or whatever, and each of these “news” items is backed up by a collection of tweets. Because, surprise, you can find 10 people on twitter expressing pretty much any viewpoint, and if you can’t then you get Russian bots to do it. This is exactly the kind of political division that Russia wants to sow. It may feel harmless to gather up some tweets and point and laugh at the conservatives but it’s a dangerous road to go down. If you look how that alt-right has weaponized these tactics and it should concern you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-massive-tax-savings/809682.md?page=5)