You know what really grinds my gears...

[Willie Kool]

We got a little over 4k back. Used it to pay off the 12 months same as cash deal we had on the living room furniture, so in our case it's more like the furniture company loaned the money to the feds...

[tifosi77]

I expected it to be bad, but not this bad. The extra money in our paychecks was negligible compared to what we ended up owing, obviously. We even added extra cash to our withholdings, but basically need to double it for next year.

I was reading something, and I'm sorry that I can't recall the specifics, but when the IRS released the initial tax tables under the new tax plan they botched it. They then re-released them a few weeks later. But a lot of companies just adopted the early ones and never checked back for the correct ones.

Could explain why yours is wonky but my FedGov withholding was about the same. I know I said they were about $1,000 apart but we had moving deductions last year that we wouldn't have been able to claim this year even under the old rules.

I was talking about that here a couple weeks ago. That there was going to be a spate of people who may have paid less overall in taxes for the year, but because of withholding errors will actually have a bill due April 15th.

For better or worse logic, that tax refund is regarded by a lot of people as their single biggest paycheck of the year, and if you consistently get the same rough amount every year it's easy to fall into the habit of budgeting for it.

[NTP66]

My employer did adjust things after the tax plan was announced, but my accountant advised us to go further and withhold more - which we both did. And need to increase, again.

Like I said, the minimal cash in my pocket each paycheck didn’t come close to covering the difference that I’m now paying the government.

Losing the itemized deductions skyrocketed our taxable income, which is where the biggest hit took place.

So again, **** that scumbag in office.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Our federal return was about the same as it’s been the last few years (ah, the benefits of being educators and not getting raises!) but our state return nearly doubled. That was...odd. We changed our dependent care situation and health spending account amounts, but our checks were up a little bit over the previous years.

My wife keeps meticulous records and when she got to the itemized section on Turbo Tax, the standard deduction doubled...nullfying her record keeping. No need to itemize it, as it was well below the standard deduction.

But yeah, **** that scumbag in office anyway.

[shafnutz05]

Our state return went up (to like $80). But yes, we didn't really get a federal refund at all, although we both got huge raises this year.

[shafnutz05]

The dads on Facebook that share Facebook images/statuses about killing/hurting their daughter's boyfriend. That screams terrible father/insecure to me.

[dodint]

Heh.

Will check back in 10 years to see how that holds up.

[count2infinity]

Games with extended intermissions for music. Especially ones that start at 8. I’m old. I wanna go to bed after the game is over and preferably before 10:30-11:00.

[mikey]

It's Saturday night, bruh...

[count2infinity]

Don’t care.

[Freddy Rumsen]

He has church in the morning.

[count2infinity]

I will be with the saints tomorrow morning.

[tifosi77]

dodinting about the DPI no-call?

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

The dads on Facebook that share Facebook images/statuses about killing/hurting their daughter's boyfriend. That screams terrible father/insecure to me.

Yeah, this is one thing that I’ve never understood

Obviously you don’t want anyone you care about dating a shitbag but the dads that do this come off as tryhards

[shoeshine boy]

The dads on Facebook that share Facebook images/statuses about killing/hurting their daughter's boyfriend. That screams terrible father/insecure to me.

such as this guy who's now governor of GA?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQBENgYJxgs

[dodint]

The 'emotional support animal' permissiveness may have reached it's tipping point:

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/02 ... -says.html

The mother of a 5-year-old girl mauled in the face by a pit bull at Portland International Airport has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the Port of Portland for allegedly letting a dangerous “emotional support animal” into the airport without a carrier.

The lawsuit lists two other defendants: the dog’s owner, Michelle Brannan, and Alaska Airlines. The suit claims Brannan should have known that her dog had “vicious propensities.” The suit says the airline is at fault for allegedly allowing Brannan to bring a dangerous dog into the gate waiting area, where the attack happened, when the dog wasn’t a trained service animal and wasn’t properly confined.

Hoping for big punitive damages here to compel the airlines to require animals be certified service dogs to be admitted into the cabin.

[mikey]

Finally...

[NTP66]

I haven’t come across a service animal on any of my flights, but I agree entirely. Go heavy on the restrictions.

[shoeshine boy]

a friend of mine was once on a flight with an "emotion support shetland pony". true story.

[DigitalGypsy66]

You can order a bib/apron online. No paperwork needed, and everyone assumes the service animal has been trained or is legitimate, because no one wants to question it.

A dad on my son's travel ball team ordered a bib so he could bring their bulldog to baseball tournaments. Now it didn't hurt to have a team mascot, but it wasn't a real service dog...at all.

[tifosi77]

To me that's sorta 'stolen valor' adjacent. Or declaring "Im allergic to so-and-so" at a restaurant, when in reality you're just on a voluntary diet that excludes so-and-so.

[Shyster]

A big part of the problem is the ADA itself, which not only limits the questions that people can ask to those with animals, but the ADA also doesn't require any formal paperwork or certification for service animals. A "service animal" has a specific legal definition, and it must be an animal (usually a dog) that is trained to do something for the person, such as guide blind people, fetch items for those with limited mobility, pull wheelchairs, detect oncoming seizures, etc. Only service animals are covered by the ADA. Animals used for "therapy" or "emotional support" are not covered by the ADA. Fluffy may be comforting to someone with anxiety, for example, but unless Fluffy is specifically trained to do something, then Fluffy isn't a service animal and has no legal right to be admitted to private businesses. But businesses are so terrified of ADA discrimination suits and so handcuffed in terms of what questions they can ask, people who IMO are unscrupulous call their "support" animals service animals.

The ADA should be amended to require some sort of official certification (i.e., one that is i.e. government-issued and not just some bullcrap card ordered from an online site) that an animal actually has the sorts of training necessary to qualify as a service animal, and handlers should be required to produce those official credentials on request.

[mamaemeritus]

Major gear grinder, as a tax professional:

return = the actual paper that you file with the government to report income, tax, withholding, credits

refund = the money you receive back when the amount paid in exceeds the amount owed

People saying "I'm going to buy furniture with this year's return!" or "F you Trump, this is the lowest return I've ever had" makes me want to open fire. Holy F.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

A big part of the problem is the ADA itself, which not only limits the questions that people can ask to those with animals, but the ADA also doesn't require any formal paperwork or certification for service animals. A "service animal" has a specific legal definition, and it must be an animal (usually a dog) that is trained to do something for the person, such as guide blind people, fetch items for those with limited mobility, pull wheelchairs, detect oncoming seizures, etc. Only service animals are covered by the ADA. Animals used for "therapy" or "emotional support" are not covered by the ADA. Fluffy may be comforting to someone with anxiety, for example, but unless Fluffy is specifically trained to do something, then Fluffy isn't a service animal and has no legal right to be admitted to private businesses. But businesses are so terrified of ADA discrimination suits and so handcuffed in terms of what questions they can ask, people who IMO are unscrupulous call their "support" animals service animals.

The ADA should be amended to require some sort of official certification (i.e., one that is i.e. government-issued and not just some bullcrap card ordered from an online site) that an animal actually has the sorts of training necessary to qualify as a service animal, and handlers should be required to produce those official credentials on request.

I like this post because 5af's militant libertarian is calling for more regulation and licensing.

[dodint]

I want to point to the record in that I requested the airlines take action on this.