We are retired and most of our cash flow is out of our IRA accounts and Social Security. I understand that my quarterly estimated tax payments are not part of our "consumption" or "special" funds and is assumed to be a deduction from income.

Since we take money out of our IRAs to pay quarterly tax payments it is taxed as income. Do I need to compensate in some way in my planning or does the program assume that the amount shown as annual withdrawal from IRAs includes not only discretionary and special spending but also the amount I need to pay my income tax?

Just wondering when MaxiFi Planner and ESPlanner will include updates for the TCJA. I'm working with a client who is a "Specialized Trade or Business" and need to see the impact of the 20% pass-through deduction (among other things). The tax differences under TCJA could be significant.

Will the next release of ESPlanner that incorporates the new Tax law changes calculate taxes with & without itemized deductions? I have all my medical costs and property taxes as special expenses & it's not obvious to me if itemizing would result in a lower federal tax than taking the new $24k std deduction. It would be a great benefit if ESPlanner would calculate the federal taxes both ways and use the lower amount. I suspect this would add a significant amount of added computational time. It may also involve too much added programming to be worthwhile.

Hello,
My wife and I live in Maryland and when I run the planner your tax calculations in MD seem to come up short. I am wondering if you are accounting for the local county taxes which can add up to 3% plus to the calculation.
Thanks,
J. Banks
jbanks729@gmail.com

The program is projecting FICA tax for my wife who has no income. Also it is showing FICA tax in the year we sell our house, and have no income from employment.

I'm retiring at 63 and won't take Social Security until 70. The Esplanner financial model withdraws an even amount of money from my IRA from 63 until death and that results in low incomes taxes from 63 until 70 and then much higher taxes after that when I start collecting SS. (85% of my SS income will be taxable).

Esplanner also draws down heavily from my *after-tax* assets between 63 and 70 to maintain my overall income which is reasonably balanced over our retirement lifetime.

I'd like to see somewhere the specific tax rates that ESPlanner Plus uses in the tax calculation. My federal tax rate, my state tax rate and my marginal tax rate.

I realize that Esplanner does not have everything on actual tax forms.

I created my plan and ran the reports On the taxes tab on the detail spreadsheet it is showing FICA tax payments for my wife in 2017 and 2021 to 2025. My wife does not work and has no income. She is 49 at this time. I am not sure why this is calculating tax for my wife.

Its been awhile since I've written. In the runs of my reports taxes are much higher than I actually pay. For NC state taxes, it probably has to do with the tax rate which has changed to a flat 5.75%. The state tax rate I'm calculating is over 6% in your program. For Federal Taxes my average tax rate from your report is around 25%, but the average tax rate I'm actually paying is <20%.

Have you thought of having the ability for users to input tax rates. For example I would put in 5.75 for NC. I would also put in the actual average tax rate I'm paying for Federal taxes.

This is my 3rd run of ESPlanner since I retired June 1, 2013. Last year, and this year 2016, I have done a bit of consulting.
1) Am I correct to put that Income on the Earnings page under Self Employment Earnings after setting the retirement age to 1/1/2016?
2) Will the program then treat me as retired for the entire 2016?