Show HN: Trump Tax Changes Comparison

Show HN: Trump Tax Changes Comparison(trumptaxchanges2025.com)

7 points by nepalvibes 1 year ago | 5 comments

Threw this together pretty quick because I kept seeing different takes on the new tax bill everywhere. Some sources saying it's bad for lower/middle class, others saying everyone saves money - figured I'd just build something to visualize it instead of trying to figure out who's right.

Used Cursor to help build the website and make it interactive so you can plug in your own info. Hosted using Cloudflare pages.

This definitely isn't perfect and you shouldn't use it for actual tax planning or anything serious. I'm not a tax expert, just someone who wanted to see the numbers laid out clearly.

Would love feedback on any major calculation error or better way to visualize it.

mpalmer 1 year ago |

You should absolutely make clear that this site was generated and may have errors. That is table stakes for stuff like this, especially when it's about financial estimates. I don't fault you for using Cursor, but be up front with your users, not just to HN.

The most glaring error is that Cursor insists on referring to a real bill that was signed into law as "hypothetical", since it happened after the model's knowledge cutoff.

Smaller, subtler things are no less misleading. The phrase "our free tax comparison calculator" implies this was created by a group, maybe a company, who might usually charge for such a thing. Lends false credibility to the project.

Strongly suggest going to the trouble of doing a cursory (ha) review of things like this before publishing.

nepalvibes 1 year ago | |

Thank you for the feedback. Will make these adjustments.

codingdave 1 year ago |

This doesn't compare the new bill, it compares to pre-2017. You also have a simple form to fill out, which could be skipped and instead show all potential results on a graph or two, which would be a far better visualization of how the changes really impact people. If you aren't comfortable with complex graphs, just show a graph with income on one axis, savings on another, then dupe it for each # of dependents.

Of course, the major complaints about the bill are the lack of funding for health care and the over-zealous funding for ICE, so I'm rejecting the implied premise of this site, that tax changes are the major concern. They aren't.

jagatp 1 year ago |

Really appreciate you putting this together—super helpful to have a visual tool like this, especially when the media is all over the place with conflicting takes. Love the transparency about not being a tax expert; honestly, tools like this often spark the most productive discussions. The interactivity is a nice touch too.

One suggestion: maybe consider adding a side-by-side comparison for previous vs. new tax brackets to make the changes even easier to spot? Either way, awesome work—bookmarking this.

throw03172019 1 year ago |

The savings seem rich.