Personal Finance and Investing

$12,000 in 2018, an improvement of $5,650. But lost the personal exemption or $4,050. For a net gain of $5650-4050 = $1,600 as far as a reduction in income. (Assuming the taxpayer took/takes the standard deduction in both years).

For Married Filing Jointly, double all the numbers above.

If with children: the dependent exemptions are gone ($4,050 each) but the child tax credit has doubled to up to $2,000 per child. Which might or might not be an improvement depending on the person's marginal tax rate (the tax credit reduces one's taxes dollar for dollar, while the dependent exemption reduces one's taxable income, for a benefit of $4,050 * marginalTaxRate).