AAII Survey: How Big Was Your Income Tax Refund Relative to Last Year?

One year after a major tax bill was signed into law, many Americans are still unclear about whether or how the changes could affect them personally. This uncertainty comes despite many changes having already been implemented. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made some of the most significant changes to the federal tax code in 30 years was intended to put more money in peoples’ paychecks and simplify the tax filing process. Some of the tax changes also are impacting the federal income tax refunds people are receiving. Chief among them was the capping of deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) and mortgage interest.

AAII Weekly Survey Question

Given the significant changes to the tax law, we wanted to see how this impacted the refunds people are receiving this year. So our latest weekly survey question asked:

Was your 2018 federal income tax refund larger or smaller than it was last year?

Here are the results:

In all, 1,815 readers participated.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents say they didn’t receive a federal income tax refund this year.

Twenty-six percent of participants said their refunds were larger this year compared to last year, with more than half of that group saying they received a federal income tax refund that was significantly larger than last year.

Overall, 19% said that their refund this year was smaller than it was last year, with more than half of this group saying their refund was significantly smaller compared to last year.

Another 12% say that their federal income tax refund was roughly the same as last year.

And even though April 15 had passed, 4% of readers say they have yet to file their 2018 federal income taxes. Be sure to get them in my the extension deadline of October 15 for personal filings.

Weekly Special Question

While the majority of our readers do not believe that the large technology companies should be broken up, we were curious to see which firms they feel hold too much influence over public communication.

So last week’s special question asked:

In what way has the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) had the most significant impact on your taxes?

In all, we received 295 responses.

Nearly 30% said the change in personal deductions was the most significant impact of the tax law change, including the cap on SALT deductions and mortgage interest.

Almost 15% of respondents said the TCJA had no impact on their taxes.

In terms of the time it took to prepare their taxes, respondents said it took them less time by a three-to-one margin."

Here is a sampling of the responses as to why our readers support or do not support oversight and regulation of social media companies:

• “It has reduced my tax liability and has let me keep more of my money to spend and invest.”
• “The increase in standard deduction made tax prep much faster and simpler and also increased my rebate.”
• “I can no longer itemize due to the cap on SALT. This caused a major increase in our tax rate.”
• "It just confirms that whenever politicians talk about simplifying income taxes, such as filing your return on a postcard, for example, the process never really gets simpler."

Everybody has an opinion! Why not give us yours? Participate in our weekly member poll, updated every Monday, and see the results online at www.aaii.com/memberquestion.