Where residents have trouble with basic math!

Based on redoing my 2016 taxes.

Our SALT taxes are $29k'ish, so now they are capped at $10k, we lose quite a bit of them.

Overall, we lose a total of $26.5k in deductions and personal exemptions. Which means, we have to pay federal taxes on $26.5k of more income. Sounds bad, right?

Nope! Even with the loss of these deductions, our initial federal tax bill is $1k less with the new plan. This is because the tax brackets are so much lower. Yes, we pay taxes on more income, but at a much lower rate. Many people freaking out in NJ didn't realize this benefit and only focused on the loss of deductions.

So, we are net +$1k

We also get crushed by the AMT! A crazy amount of folks in NJ get hit with the AMT, which essentially negates many of your deductions anyway (i.e., my SALT deductions). The AMT starting point was raised to $1m, so now we also save $5k with this being killed for us.

And finally, we are now eligible for the child tax credit, raised to $2k and income limit increased to $400-500k. So another +2k.

All in all = +1, +5, and +2 add up to our $8k tax cut under the new plan.