Rather than starting a new thread I'll put this here. Buddy of mine just did his taxes for 2018. Here's roughly their tax situation each year. Combine income for he and his wife is $165,000 (before deductions, credits, etc.). They have two kids, one is in college and one is in HS. They do not have any other income or losses from business ventures, stock losses etc. Their tax situation is straight forward and has been for years. Income from their jobs and that's it. They normally itemize and give quite a bit to their church. Their itemized deductions routinely exceed $24,000 each year. Much of this comes from tithes, state income tax withholding, mortgage interest.
He did his taxes over the weekend and at the end of it owed $2,500 more than last year. Here's why, personal exemptions for the kids are eliminated, but was supposed to be made up for with the increase in the child tax credit. The standard deduction for married filing joint is $24,000, doubled from $12,500 in previous years. However, he said if your itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction for married filing joint the child tax credits phase out. So, not only did he lose he kids personal exemption, he also lost the child tax credit for the one in HS.
In his mind he falls into the middle to upper middle class and this tax reform was supposed to help him. Yet to his surprise (and will be many, many, many others like him) his taxes increased by $2,500.