OK, so I went over our projected 2017 return and plugged the number for 2018 [View all]
and... we will owe about $300 less in taxes. Nice, but I wish this went to help uninsured people.
Just read this explanation, for retirees:
Congress also decided to keep the “additional standard deduction” for people age 65 and over in the new law. It will be $1,600 for singles and $1,300 for each spouse in a married couple in 2018, which is what it was going to be for 2018 in the old law.
The personal exemption, which would be $4,150 in 2018, also is being repealed.
The bottom line: Say John and Margaret are a married couple, ages 67 and 65, with no children at home. Under the prior law for 2018, they would get a standard deduction of $13,000, additional deductions of $2,600, and personal exemptions totaling $8,300. Total: $23,900.
Under the new law, John and Margaret will get a standard deduction of $24,000 plus an additional standard deduction of $2,600, for a total of $26,600—or $2,700 more.
Our itemized deductions would have been around $26,000 so, it seems we will take the standard. But, of course, a lot may change by the time April 2019 comes around..
= new reply since forum marked as read