{"id":12459,"date":"2018-05-25T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com\/?p=12459"},"modified":"2018-06-18T15:29:21","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T20:29:21","slug":"5-key-tax-changes-for-your-individual-clients-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accountants.intuit.com\/taxprocenter\/tax-law-and-news\/5-key-tax-changes-for-your-individual-clients-in-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Key Tax Changes for Your Individual Clients in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tax law changes are often a stand-alone proposition\u2014tax rates go up or down, a new deduction is added to the Code, another deduction is eliminated, or a tax write-off is increased or decreased. It\u2019s usually pretty easy to determine what the tax law change will mean for your clients. However, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017<\/a> is a different story, with both pluses and minuses that will impact your clients in different ways. Here\u2019s a rundown of five key changes that will likely affect the majority of your individual clients.<\/p>\n

#1: Personal and Dependency Exemptions Eliminated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Year after year, taxpayers have routinely claimed personal and dependency exemption deductions for themselves, their spouses and their dependents\u2014but not this year. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act effectively repeals the exemption deductions by reducing the exemption amount to zero.<\/p>\n

Before the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the exemption amount was scheduled to be $4,150 for 2018. So, for a single taxpayer, the personal exemption would have sheltered $4,150 from tax in 2018. And for a family of four, the elimination of personal exemptions potentially exposes as much as $16,600 of income to tax in 2018.<\/p>\n

#2: Standard Deductions Increased<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the plus side of the ledger, the new law nearly doubles the standard deductions for every filing status. For 2018, the new law sets the standard deduction at:<\/p>\n