Cutting through the tax refund noise. Here’s what’s real so far in Florida
Bottom Line: After the incredible effort put forward by Democrats and their allies in the news media to demonize the Tax Cut and Jobs Act at the time of passage, there was never a chance, they wouldn’t attempt to jump on any opportunity they saw to do it again. Remember the stories about how the economy would suffer and only the rich would benefit, blah, blah, blah. In the first year of the tax cuts we hit record low unemployment for every demographic except white men. What’s more is that quality of life is the best for adults of every age and wage growth the best in decades. Yeah, really terrible those tax cuts. But then the dishonest media saw a window of opportunity. The stats from initial tax filings.
The average refund was down about 8% in the first week plus of returns. Must be the evil tax cuts, right? So, without any context you’ve had that thrown around and “blamed” on the tax cuts. The first point I’m compelled to make is that the best tax return you could file would be for $0. Getting a tax return means you weren’t as efficient with your money as you could have been. Save special circumstances, getting big tax returns means that you’re extremely inefficient with your money. It’s not something to celebrate. But not to distract from the point. It’s a bogus narrative.
Comparing previous tax cycles to this one at this stage is pointless. With 32% of individuals filing itemized returns last year and fewer than 10% needing to do so this year, many people who generally don’t receive large refunds are filing sooner than they ever have skewing the numbers a bit. News media ignored the IRS statement earlier this week when they said that refunds from like individuals were tracking similarly to previous years.
Here are a couple facts for you based on who’s filed so far in Florida:
- Every district monitored has shown that the average person saved money on taxes
- Average savings for those who’ve filed so far totals $1,355.
You’ve yet to hear than until now I’m sure. More to come, but the point of the story for now is consider the source. The same wrong, loud voices from last year? Or your personal outcome.