How tax reform will affect this year’s taxes and next year’s returns

Tax returns are due Tuesday, so folks have tax issues on their minds. So I asked Nicole Kaeding of the Tax Foundation to go over a few of the big things that changed because of the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and how it will affect this year’s taxes and next year’s returns.

“The child tax credit is much more generous in 2018, compared to 2017,” says Kaeding — with the credit doubling to $2,000 a child.

And the number of parents who can use the credit will increase because anyone now earning less than $400,000 a year is eligible — up from $110,000. Plus, under the new tax law, the standard deduction that people can claim increased.

“For married filers, it grew from $13,000 to $24,000,” says Kaeding. It’s expected that 90 percent of taxpayers will use the standard deduction when filing 2018 taxes.

The Tax Foundation expects 80 percent of Americans to see a drop in their taxes — with the average cut coming to $1,610.