You Scored With an Online Sports Bet. Do You Owe Taxes?

[progree]

3. The standard deduction increase, was, unfortunately accompanied by the personal and

dependent exemptions being eliminated (edit -- these exemptions are something both itemizers and non-itemizers benefited from equally, so they aren't just something that itemizers benefited from /End edit). The loss of these exemptions almost offset what most people gained from the standard deduction increase.

It used to be that that the amount of untaxed income was the sum of the exemptions plus deductions (the latter being the higher of itemized deductions or the standard deduction)

Now, the amount of untaxed income is just the deductions (again being the higher of itemized deductions or the standard deduction).

Also, the Trump tax "cuts" have tax bracket and standard deduction increasing according to the chained CPI, rather than the CPI (which is higher). That results in a considerable increase in taxes over the years compared to using the regular CPI. And that clever little change is permanent -- it doesn't go away at the end of 2025 unlike most of the other Trump changes affecting personal income taxes.