The theme for this week is: Tax Time!

First of all, I want to explain as best I can in 1-2 minutes how the biggest tax law change since the 1980s - the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - might make things way different for you this year when you file your taxes.

Where to begin?! Oh my goodness! Ok…here goes:

The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.

Sorry, kidding. Ok, really:

Probably the biggest change that you’ll want to understand is that the standard deduction has doubled. So what does this mean? It means that instead of itemizing your deductions, more Americans will just take the standard deduction.

This makes doing your taxes more simple for most Americans, because if your itemized deductions will total less than the standard deduction - $12,000 for single filers or $24,000 for joint filers - then you’ll just claim the standard deduction, rather than bothering with trying to itemize.

The Heritage Foundation estimates that 90% of taxpayers will not itemize, and just claim the new standard deduction amount. Whether or not you take the standard deduction or continue to itemize largely depends on the complexity of your situation, the amount of deductions you took in previous years and are likely to take again this year, and your income.

Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about deductions that will still apply “above the line” before you throw in the standard deduction, like your 401k contribution - but for now, I think the most important change to understand is the simplification of doing your taxes due to the higher standard deduction amount taxpayers can now claim.

That’s it for today. Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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